PARIS: French “yellow vests” prepared for a sixth Saturday of nationwide demonstrations, but numbers on the streets are falling fast as the police clear protest camps in the run-up to the Christmas holidays.
The protesters had been split Friday on whether to stage another large rally in Paris, or in the nearby town of Versailles, once home to king Louis XVI who lost his head to the revolutionary guillotine.
Fearing possible unrest, authorities said they were closing the Palace of Versailles and its gardens, a top tourist venue, on Saturday.
A Facebook event organized by “yellow vest” leader Eric Drouet listed 1,400 people as “participants” in the Versailles demonstration with a further 8,000 people saying they were “interested.”
Meanwhile shopkeepers in Paris, many of whom remained shuttered over the past two weekends to guard against looting and violence, were urged to exercise caution.
Further demonstrations were also planned in Lyon, Toulouse, Orleans and Brittany.
On Friday evening, the French Senate approved a raft of measures to help the working poor and pensioners, just hours after they had been adopted by the lower house of parliament. The measures should come into force early in 2019.
Earlier Friday Prime Minister Edouard Philippe visited the Haute-Vienne region of central France to discuss grievances of disgruntled rural-dwellers with local mayors.
Philippe was greeted by demonstrators shouting “Macron resign,” in a reference to President Emmanuel Macron.
Elsewhere, some “gilets jaunes” sought to keep pressure on the government to further boost spending power and give citizens more of a say in lawmaking by staging sporadic protests.
In Pfastatt, eastern France, 14 demonstrators trying to block access to a factory supplying parts to PSA Peugeot Citroen, Europe’s second-biggest carmaker, were arrested by police.
In the southwestern city of Toulouse, some 30 protesters held a rally lampooning Macron on his 41st birthday.
“We haven’t brought him any presents because he hasn’t given us any,” said one protester.
The number of protesters has however fallen significantly since last week, when Macron, a pro-business centrist, gave into some of their demands.
The interior ministry estimated the numbers taking part in various protests on Thursday at under 4,000, the lowest since demonstrations began on November 17, with 282,000 taking part on the first Saturday.
The number of traffic roundabouts occupied by protesters in yellow high-visibility vests over the past five weeks has also markedly dropped.
Some 300 have been cleared by police since mid-December, with 200 still occupied, the interior ministry said Friday.
Versailles closes ahead of ‘yellow vest’ protest as numbers fall
Versailles closes ahead of ‘yellow vest’ protest as numbers fall
- The protesters had been split Friday on whether to stage another large rally in Paris, or in the nearby town of Versailles
- Earlier Friday Prime Minister Edouard Philippe visited the Haute-Vienne region of central France to discuss grievances of disgruntled rural-dwellers with local mayors
WHO chief says reasons US gave for withdrawing ‘untrue’
- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in a joint statement Thursday that Washington had formally withdrawn from the WHO
- And in a post on X, Tedros added: “Unfortunately, the reasons cited for the US decision to withdraw from WHO are untrue”
GENEVA: The head of the UN’s health agency on Saturday pushed back against Washington’s stated reasons for withdrawing from the World Health Organization, dismissing US criticism of the WHO as “untrue.”
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that US announcement this week that it had formally withdrawn from the WHO “makes both the US and the world less safe.”
And in a post on X, he added: “Unfortunately, the reasons cited for the US decision to withdraw from WHO are untrue.”
He insisted: “WHO has always engaged with the US, and all Member States, with full respect for their sovereignty.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in a joint statement Thursday that Washington had formally withdrawn from the WHO.
They accused the agency, of numerous “failures during the Covid-19 pandemic” and of acting “repeatedly against the interests of the United States.”
The WHO has not yet confirmed that the US withdrawal has taken effect.
- ‘Trashed and tarnished’ -
The two US officials said the WHO had “trashed and tarnished” the United States, and had compromised its independence.
“The reverse is true,” the WHO said in a statement.
“As we do with every Member State, WHO has always sought to engage with the United States in good faith.”
The agency strenuously rejected the accusation from Rubio and Kennedy that its Covid response had “obstructed the timely and accurate sharing of critical information that could have saved American lives and then concealed those failures.”
Kennedy also suggested in a video posted to X Friday that the WHO was responsible for “the Americans who died alone in nursing homes (and) the small businesses that were destroyed by reckless mandates” to wear masks and get vaccinated.
The US withdrawal, he insisted, was about “protecting American sovereignty, and putting US public health back in the hands of the American people.”
Tedros warned on X that the statement “contains inaccurate information.”
“Throughout the pandemic, WHO acted quickly, shared all information it had rapidly and transparently with the world, and advised Member States on the basis of the best available evidence,” the agency said.
“WHO recommended the use of masks, vaccines and physical distancing, but at no stage recommended mask mandates, vaccine mandates or lockdowns,” it added.
“We supported sovereign governments to make decisions they believed were in the best interests of their people, but the decisions were theirs.”
- Withdrawal ‘raises issues’ -
The row came as Washington struggled to dislodge itself from the WHO, a year after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to that effect.
The one-year withdrawal process reached completion on Thursday, but Kennedy and Rubio regretted in their statement that the UN health agency had “not approved our withdrawal and, in fact, claims that we owe it compensation.”
WHO has highlighted that when Washington joined the organization in 1948, it reserved the right to withdraw, as long as it gave one year’s notice and had met “its financial obligations to the organization in full for the current fiscal year.”
But Washington has not paid its 2024 or 2025 dues, and is behind around $260 million.
“The notification of withdrawal raises issues,” WHO said Saturday, adding that the topic would be examined during WHO’s Executive Board meeting next month and by the annual World Health Assembly meeting in May.
“We hope the US will return to active participation in WHO in the future,” Tedros said Saturday.
“Meanwhile, WHO remains steadfastly committed to working with all countries in pursuit of its core mission and constitutional mandate: the highest attainable standard of health as a fundamental right for all people.”
