Yellow jackets protests "burst" compensation file

Agencies - Abu Dhabi
PARIS (Reuters) - Local council officials called on Sunday for an "emergency meeting" with the government to discuss measures to pay compensation to those affected by the riots, which have seen some "yellow jackets" in the past 13 weeks.

Local officials stressed in a statement that "the losses incurred by the population and merchants" as a result of these demonstrations every Saturday, which is usually the shopping day for the French, according to "AFP".

According to a statement by local officials of major cities and towns, traders and residents were "hostage-takers" in reference to the yellow jackets. The losses are estimated at "a few million dollars in a number of major cities," such as Bordeaux, Dijon, Nantes, Paris, Rennes, Rouen, Saint Etienne and Toulouse .

Local officials called for a meeting with the prime minister and the economy minister to determine the mechanisms of compensation and follow-up in the name of national solidarity.

Among the losses and damage recorded according to the statement, "the destruction of roads, sidewalks, public places, bus stops and traffic signs", in addition to losses suffered by traders.
Government invitation
The Minister of State for Economy, Agnes Pagnet Ronashé, on Friday called on traders and business owners whose businesses and places of business as a result of the "Yellow Jackets" practices to be affected to apply for compensation.

In Toulouse, three photographers covering the "yellow jackets" on Saturday accused police of deliberately targeting them, one of them in the thigh.

Targeting the press
"We chose to withdraw from the demonstrators so as not to be with the security forces," said the photographer of the Liberation newspaper in Toulouse, Ulrich Lobov, who was with Belleville and a third photographer, Eric Lerbier.

"We were wearing a helmet with a press logo," Lubov said. "You could see us and see us very clearly."

Belleville told AFP that a "grenade" exploded near his feet and was hit in the thigh from the back and the back of his back. He said the photographers were clearly "targetless."

At the start of the protests, rioters looted the streets of Paris, setting fire to cars, smashing high-end boutiques and tarnishing the Arc de Triomphe, the worst such event in the French capital since a student uprising in 1968.

The yellow sweaters' movement was formed last November after the government decided to increase fuel taxes and quickly turned into a broader protest against inequality and President Emmanuel Macaron's policy.