Workers in Paris swept up broken glass and towed away burnt-out cars on Sunday after the latest “yellow vest” riots, while the government warned of slower economic growth and said that President Emmanuel Macron would address the nation this week.
On Saturday, anti-government protesters wrecked havoc in the city for the fourth weekend in a row, throwing stones, torching cars and vandalizing shops and restaurants.
Across the city, bank branch offices, toy shops, opticians and other retail outlets had boarded up storefronts smashed by protesters, and walls were covered in anti-Macron slogans.
“You won’t make it past Christmas, Emmanuel,” read the graffiti on a boarded-up shop near the Champs Elysees boulevard.
Macron, elected in May 2017, is facing mounting criticism for not speaking in public in more than a week as violence worsened.
The upheaval in the Christmas shopping season has dealt a heavy blow to retailing, the tourist industry and the manufacturing sector as road blocks disrupt supply chains.
On Saturday, the Eiffel Tower and several museums closed their doors for security reasons, as did top Paris department stores on what should have been a prime shopping weekend.
The protest movement will have “a severe impact” on the French economy, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told Reuters on Sunday as he toured an upmarket central Paris neighborhood that had seen heavy looting Saturday night.
“We must expect a new slowdown of economic growth at year-end due to the “yellow vest” protests,” Le Maire said.
In the middle of last month, before the protests, the central bank forecast 0.4 percent fourth-quarter growth. Economists said then that the economy would need to grow at 0.8 percent in the final three months to hit the government’s 1.7 percent annual growth forecast.
Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said Macron would make “important announcements” early in the coming week.
“However, not all the problems of the ‘yellow vest’ protesters will be solved by waving a magic wand,” he said.
Yellow vest protesters demand lower taxes, higher minimum wages and better pension benefits. But, mindful of France’s deficit and not wanting to flout EU rules, Macron has scant wriggle room for more concessions.
Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian said the yellow vest movement expressed a deep sense of inequality among French people.
“We need a new social contract for the 21st century,” he told LCI televison.
Yellow vest protesters were unimpressed with the government’s overtures, continuing their blockade of traffic roundabouts nationwide and vowing to fight on.
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