Paris mops up after spasm of ‘yellow vest’ violence

PARIS — Crews collected debris along one of the world’s most glamorous avenues Sunday after rioting by an ultraviolent core in the dwindling “yellow vest” protest movement angry at President Emmanuel Macron.

Luxury stores, restaurants and banks on the Champs-Elysees assessed damage after they were ransacked or blackened by fires, as tourists took pictures, shop owners repaired broken windows, and city workers scrubbed away graffiti.

Images of the damage — including from a bank fire that engulfed a residential building and threatened a mother and child’s life — shocked France and seem to be further eroding public support for the fizzling four-month-old movement.

“This is disgusting. I used to have support for them, but they have gone too far. A mother and baby nearly died. ... This isn’t protest — this is criminal,” said Alice Giraud, a musician from Marseille and mother of two who was inspecting a burnt out kiosk on the Champs-Elysees that still reeked of smoke.

Others blamed the violence on the “thugs,” a hardcore group of yellow vest demonstrators that Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said came into Paris just to smash things up.

Some 10,000 people participated in Saturday’s Paris protest, according to France’s Interior Ministry, up from the 3,000 recorded the Saturday before. Around the country, the ministry estimated that it was up from last week — at 32,300, compared with 28,600.

However, it was far from the 250,000 yellow vest demonstrators who protested in December — and a fraction of the 145,000 people who took part in peaceful climate marches Saturday around France, according to the ministry’s figures.

Public support for the movement that seeks economic justice has been sullied by violence and is dwindling. The...