The anti-government yellow vest movement has returned to organize a series of protests and marches in the streets of the capital Paris and a number of French cities, after a temporary halt due to the state of closure in the country to combat the Corona virus.
The French police deployed heavily in Paris today, Saturday, and used tear gas to break up the demonstrations, and arrested 154 youths and referred 27 of them to pretrial detention, who were participating in the demonstrations.
The movement's activists took to the streets of the capital, Paris, and other French cities, such as Marseille, Toulouse, Lyon, Lille, Nantes, Nice, Bordeaux and Strasbourg.
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in two squares in Paris to take part in two authorized marches.
While one of the two marches did not witness any incidents, the other was delayed after the police used tear gas to disperse protesters who did not adhere to the specified route, and some of them set fire to garbage bins and a car, and the police prevented any presence of yellow vests in the vicinity of the famous Champs Elysees Street in anticipation of riots.
Corona containment
The resumption of the yellow vest protests coincides with France's efforts to contain the increase in the number of coronavirus infections.
Daily infections with Covid-19 disease reached a record high on Thursday, reaching about 10,000, and the number of people receiving treatment in hospital has steadily increased this month.
On Friday, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced plans to speed up the pace of testing and tighten measures in some cities, but said the government wanted to avoid a return to the general lockdown it imposed during the spring.
The police called on the demonstrators today to abide by the health rules in the Paris region, which is one of the risk areas that impose the muzzle on anyone who goes out into the street anywhere in the city.