Eiffel Tower to be closed as Paris braces for more protests

PARIS (AP) — France was mobilizing tens of thousands of police officers and closing landmarks including the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre as authorities warned that anti-government protests on Saturday could be even more violent than the ones that have crippled the country for weeks. Across the country some 89,000 police will be mobilized, up from 65,000 last weekend when more than 130 people were injured and over 400 were arrested as protests degenerated into the worst street violence to hit Paris in decades. READ MORE: Paris protests reveal fracture between France’s haves and have-nots

Amid the unrest, some of the protesters, French union officials and prominent politicians across the political spectrum have urged calm especially as French President Emmanuel Macron agreed to abandon the fuel tax hike that triggered the movement. The National Federation of French markets said that Christmas markets have been “strongly impacted” and that its members registered “an average fall of their estimated figures between 30 and 40 per cent since the beginning of the movement of the yellow vests.”

In addition to the closure of the Eiffel Tower, many shops and museums across France, including the Louvre, Orsay Museum and the Grand Palais, will keep their doors shut on Saturday for safety reasons. READ MORE: Why France’s ‘yellow vest’ protesters are rioting in Paris and across the country

“We need to protect culture sites in Paris but also everywhere in France,” Culture Minister Franck Riester told RTL radio.
Major landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre are to shut down amid expected protests this weekend.