MONTPELLIER, FRANCE - Anti-government protesters turned out in several French cities Saturday , hoping to inject fresh momentum into weekly demonstrations calling for social justice and the ouster of President Emmanuel Macron.
Police said around 1,500 people gathered in the southern city of Montpellier, where a police car was set aflame by a firebomb as officers used tear gas to try to disperse the crowd.Rallies of several hundreds of people were held in cities including Rouen, Strasbourg and Toulouse. However only a few dozen people demonstrated in Paris, where the authorities have maintained a ban on protests on the Champs-Elysees.
Triggered by anger over a fuel tax increase, they quickly ballooned into a broad movement against Macron, accused of ignoring the day-to-day struggles of low-income earners in small-town and rural France.