Yellow vests: violence in the margin of the movement in Reunion

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A car burns in the night of November 19, in Saint-Denis-de-la-Réunion. The national movement of yellow vests is experiencing more uncontrolled overflows on the island than in France. Richard BOUHET / AFP

Since Saturday, November 17, the mobilization of yellow vests is overwhelmed by clashes looting and a blockage of all activities on the island. The prefect of Reunion has introduced this Tuesday a curfew with ban on circulation in half of the municipalities of the island for three nights.

The anger expressed heteroclite in France by the so-called movement of yellow vests , originally in response to rising fuel taxes, also affects the French island of Reunion, in the Indian Ocean. But he knows, at his margin, many and violent slippages.

Since November 17, several cities in Reunion are the scene of looting and various urban violence from dusk. Several supermarkets and other businesses were attacked in the night from Monday to Tuesday, including Saint-Denis, the capital. Motorists have been racketeered, abused. All schools, most shops and service stations, as well as public services (Chamber of Commerce and Industry in particular), are closed.

The fuel depot on the island has been blocked by protesters since Monday. The commercial port, whose access has been blocked since yesterday, is paralyzed. Three cruise liner stops have been canceled and the airlines are upsetting their flight programs because of the filtering barrier set up since Saturday in front of Roland-Garros airport in Saint-Denis. The two sugar factories on the island have also stopped since Saturday.

In response, the prefect Amaury de Saint-Quentin introduced Tuesday a ban on movement from 21h to 6h in half of the towns of the island, blocked by many roadblocks erected by yellow vests. This curfew is in effect until Friday at least. During the day, a delegation of yellow vests had been received in the prefecture. The discussions were unsuccessful, provoking disappointment and anger among the protesters.

Gillot's yellow vests (near the airport, in Saint-Denis-de-la-Réunion) were dislodged by the gendarmes.

The yellow vests announced in the morning that they would raise the dams at 18h. The gendarmes had foreseen that they would intervene this time exceeded. Despite the warning of the police and the clearly expressed disagreement of some of the yellow vests, a hundred protesters chose to stay

Gillot's yellow jackets dislocated without violence 20/11/2018 - by RFI Play

Yellow vests or delinquency?

According to our colleagues from La Première, a FranceInfo radio station in La Réunion, who watch the events live , clashes between police and young people continued in the evening of Tuesday, particularly in the Chaudron, a popular district of Saint-Denis-de-la- Meeting.

" It is certain individuals, delinquents, very young for most of them, who have taken advantage of the demonstration of the yellow vests to loot, degrade, break and will voluntarily take to the police forces, explains a police officer attached by RFI. There are several hundred individuals, scattered over the different districts of police and gendarmerie of the island of Reunion, namely the different municipalities. More than sixty have been arrested over the past three days. We have about fifteen wounded policemen. All supermarkets are closed. We have to go and feed ourselves in small convenience stores. It will become complicated if it lasts a long time. "

In a statement sent Tuesday to AFP, Annick Girardin denounces " violence [which] are the gangs of young people who have nothing to do with yellow vests ," she said. It promises a " firm response from the state " to counter this " intolerable movement evolution ".

The Medef deplores the economic and social consequences of these excesses.

Bands of idle youth mixed with young vests and had only one desire, it is to cast. Economic activity is completely blocked, with extremely dramatic consequences: pharmacies are not supplied. Health professionals are struggling to cross the dams of yellow vests and therefore some people have not received care for 24 to 48 hours for some [...] I think of our small businesses in Reunion which for four days have more economic activities. Yellow vests are laying our businesses down.

Didier Fauchard 20/11/2018 - by David Baché Listen

Eric Marguerite is a departmental delegate of the Force Ouvrière union in Reunion. He is saddened by a situation which, according to him, reflects the distress of the inhabitants of the island, in a difficult economic situation. Although he strongly condemns the violence.

We must distinguish two things: the demonstration organized by the yellow vests protesting against the rise in the price of gasoline, the high cost of living, the decline in purchasing power, and then those who break - delinquents who take advantage of at night, young people left to themselves who commit degradations [...] This situation is not acceptable.

Eric Marguerite 20/11/2018 - by David Baché Listen

Nadia Ramassamy, MP The Republicans of the island and president of the parliamentary intergroup of the French overseas territories, sent a letter to the President of the Republic asking to adjust his policy to the specificities of the ultra-marine regions: " The situation is getting worse , she says. Commerce, banks, La Poest are closed. The increase in the price of fuel is the straw that broke the camel's back. There has been this movement, and at the same time, there are people, delinquents or whatever, who are doing something to break it. But I went to them: in the yellow vests, there are also young people who need work. They say "we want to work, there are no jobs, the contracts are completed, we increase everything". I think that we must very quickly set up adaptations to the specificities. In emergency, reduce all these taxes. Do not forget that life is expensive: a yogurt that costs 2 euros, here it is 4 euros. We import everything. So a few cents is huge for people who have only 400 euros per month. "