On Friday night, a man wearing an explosive device demanded "yellow vest" protesters be given an audience by the French president.
The 45-year-old man was wearing a yellow vest and revealed the device at a car wash in a shopping centre in the town of Angers, in western France.
Today, France prepares for another round of demonstrations by the "gilet jaunes" ('yellow vest)' protestors who are fighting against rising fuel costs and President Emmanuel Macron’s economic policies. In response, angry drivers took to social media and started the 'yellow vest' movement. The first protest on Nov 17 saw 300,000 demonstrators taking part, blocking major roadways nationwide resulting in two dead and 606 injured.
The protest movement distanced themselves from the man who surrendered at 10:40 pm after several hours of negotiations with police at the Espace Anjou shopping centre's parking lot where yellow vest demonstrators gathered last week.
"There was a real risk, real danger, he had an explosive charge around his neck... This was not fake," local official Bernard Gonzalez told AFP.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner tweeted that the man had threatened to use "unidentified explosive elements and tampered grenades".
Fuel costs
As part of Macron's climate change plan, the French government voted to increase the carbon tax in January 2019 that would see diesel - the most commonly used fuel in France now being phased out - increase by 6.5 cents per litre and 2.9 cent a litre more for gas. The price hike, decided in late 2017 at a time crude oil prices were hovering under $50 per barrel, surged to over $85 in October.
