Alwaght- Yellow Vest protests in France continued for the eighth week in a row, with 50,000 demonstrators marching through Paris and other cities on Saturday.
The Yellow Vest movement emerged after French President Emmanuel Macron announced a fuel tax hike to encourage a transition towards greener energy.
The French government has now suspended the price hikes but the protests continue nevertheless.
Saturday protests came despite Macron's government announcing on Friday that it would harden its stance against the 'yellow vests'.
'Yellow vest' protesters gathered in Paris on Saturday afternoon, chanting the French national anthem 'La Marseillaise' and waving anti-Macron banners. They were about 4,000, according to the police.
They peacefully marched from the Champs-Elysees boulevard through central Paris, gathering at the stock exchange to call for Emmanuel Macron's resignation
The protests turned violent as the march entered the city centre. Protesters threw bottles and rocks at the police, who responded with tear gas. Police officers were beaten up during clashes on the Léopold-Sédar-Senghor bridge near the National Assembly. One was injured, AFP reported. Police cars were attacked on Rue de Rivoli, by the Louvre museum. Cars and barricades were set ablaze on the boulevard Saint-Germain, a famed and wealthy Parisian area.
After the French government's spokesperson, Benjamin Griveaux, was escorted from his office as 'yellow vests' managed to enter his ministry's courtyard, president Macron denounced an "extreme violence" that came to "attack the Republic".
Thousands more gathered in other French cities. In Bordeaux in the southwest, they were 4,600 according to local authorities. They were 2,000 in Rouen and more than 1,000 in Lille, in the north, and 2,000 in Nantes, in the west. Marches were also held in Rennes, in the west, and Lyon and Marseille in the southeast. In Lyon, 'yellow vests' blocked the A7 motorway.
Taken by surprise by the 'yellow vest' protests at the end of last year, Macron's government started 2019 on the offensive, calling the remaining protesters "agitators" seeking to overthrow the government. On Wednesday night, one of the prominent figures of the 'yellow vests' was arrested by the police.
