The anti-fuel tax protests are yielding “a multiplication of violent acts, racist acts, anti-Semitic acts and vandalism,” Interior Minister Christophe Castaner warned earlier this week, as the anti-government anger showed no sign of abating on Thursday. More than 500 people have been injured in protest clashes since Saturday but Emmanuel Macron’s centrist government has refused to back down from a hike in fuel tax despite the growing unrest. A 32-year old protester was handed a six-month suspended prison sentence on Wednesday for punching a police officer who tried to remove a road blockade in Viry-Noureuil, a town in northern France, according to AFP.
Four more “yellow vests” – aged between 19 and 21 – were sentenced to four months in prison on Wednesday for “violence against persons vested with public authority”.
The youths, who had no criminal record, injured several police officers during a fuel tax protest in the northwestern town of Quimper.
Scattered protests have continued since the grassroots campaign kicked off on Saturday and are expected to carry on over weekend, when thousands of people are to converge on Paris to denounce the fuel tax.
But securing the protests is becoming more difficult and dangerous due to “the aggression and change in behaviour of demonstrators systematically confronting security forces,” Mr Castaner added.
Two people have died and over 500 have been injured since protesters began erecting barricades on roads and staging go-slow operations to try to force the government to cancel the planned tax hikes on diesel fuel and gasoline, which will come into effect on January 1.
Taxes on diesel fuel have gone up 7 euro cents and are to keep climbing in the coming years, while the tax on gasoline is to increase by 4 euro cents.
Unrest has also erupted on the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion.
For several nights running, youths armed with petrol bombs and stones have clashed with police, leaving 30 officers injured, government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said.
One police officer lost his hand after a grenade accidentally went off in his car as it was being stoned by protesters.
Mr Griveaux has blamed the violence on “gangs of youths” riding the wave of chaos triggered by the protests to “loot, sack and destroy” property.
While the so-called “yellow vest” movement was born out of a backlash against higher fuel prices, it has tapped a broader frustration at the perceived squeeze in buying power and growing frustration with President Emmanuel Macron’s economic policies.
Despite walking a tightrope in dealing with protesters, the Macron administration shows no sign of backtracking on the tax hike, which it says is needed to help wean the French off fossil fuels.
Mr Macron on Wednesday threatened “severe” action against protesters who “breach the peace, endanger motorists’ lives or intimidate drivers or police,” adding that while people were undeniably “suffering” the violent behaviour of some “yellow vests” was “unacceptable”.
The French President added: “We cannot accept the fact that two people have died, that protesters and police officers have been injured, that people have been the target of racist, anti-Semitic or homophobic slurs.”
Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian struck a more cautious note earlier this week, telling Europe 1 radio that the government had to “listen to and respect” protesters’ pain as he admitted that the lower and middle classes would be the hardest hit by the higher carbon taxes.
Mr Le Drian added that the government must “defuse the protest bomb”.