French Yellow Vest protesters on Saturday vandalised the offices of Emmanuel Macron’s LREM party in Montpellier, in the south of France, while elsewhere marches were held in Toulouse, Bordeaux and Paris.
Some 100 Yellow Vests sprayed the offices of MP Patrick Vignal with yellow and green paint. The member for Hérault, in the Occitanie region, becomes one of more than a dozen Republic on the Move party MPs to have been attacked.
Media reports say both farmers and Yellow Vests, or gilets-jaunes, have been targeting MPs that voted in favor of Ceta, the controversial free trade agreement between the European Union and Canada that was ratified by parliament last month.
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Following the attack on his office, a procession of a hundred Yellow Vests then marched through Montpellier, blocking the tram.
#Montpellier : la permanence du député LREM Patrick Vignal vandalisée https://t.co/VBT7z2TcNF via @Midilibre
Midi Libre Montpellier (@MLMontpellier) August 10, 2019
"I leave them their baseness,” Vignal told the French press agency, AFP. “I will not leave them my hatred; I am neither disillusioned nor angry.”
Vignal said he intends to leave the yellow paint untouched as a message to others that the Yellow Vests are refusing to join talks.
Protester numbers dwindle over the summer
Meanwhile in Bordeaux, more than a hundred protesters gathered on the Place de la Bourse, in front of the entrance to the National Customs Museum. This compares to the nearly 6,000 people who turned out at the height of the movement.
Le monde a l'envers ! Les #GiletsJaunes tentent de calmer la police qui frappe sans raison des manifestants. La police a attrapé des gj pour les empêcher d'entrer dans un magasin pour acheter de l'eau... On en est là. #Acte39 pic.twitter.com/hLGEQcH2kF
Cerveaux non disponibles (@CerveauxNon) August 10, 2019
Police in Toulouse fired tear gas after some 250 protesters – many in their fifties and over – marched through the city. Two women were lightly injured.
In Paris, a few hundred Yellow Vests marched in the city’s west between Villiers and André-Citroën park, shouting "Let's go! Purchasing power, housing, health, education, employment, retirement, unemployment.”
Organisers said “Act 39” of the Yellow Vests movement was carried out in solidarity with pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.
