PARIS — France’s prime minister announced a ban Monday on yellow vest protests along the Champs-Elysees Avenue in Paris and in two other cities following riots on Saturday that left luxury stores ransacked and charred from arson fires.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the ban will apply for an unspecified period in the neighborhoods that have been “the most impacted” in the cities of Paris, Bordeaux and Toulouse, where repeated destruction has occurred since the protest movement began in November.
He also said Paris police chief Michel Delpuech will be replaced this week by prefect Didier Lallement.
Philippe announced the measures following a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and top security officials that sought to avoid a repeat of Saturday’s violence, in which rioters set life-threatening fires, ransacked luxury stores and attacked police around the Champs-Elysees. Many of those high-end boutiques remained closed on Monday, some of them charred from arson fires set.
He acknowledged “dysfunction” in police operations on Saturday, rejecting “inappropriate” orders given to security forces to use fewer rubber bullets following a controversy about the injuries they’ve caused at previous protests.
Philippe announced a shift in security strategy to allow police to have a greater initiative on the ground to take measures against rioters and disperse crowds. He said police will use new tools, including drones and video surveillance, to help preventing violence and send rioters to trial.
“When a protest has been banned and its aim is to ransack and loot, all of those who take part it in and, in fact, protect looters, encourage them or glorify them online, are complicit and will have to face the consequences,” he said.
Philippe promised “nothing will change” for peaceful, authorized protests.
The surge in violence came as the 4-month-old movement, which is pressing for more economic justice, has been dwindling. Images of the destruction on Saturday– including from a bank fire that engulfed a residential building and threatened the lives of a mother and child — could further erode public support.
