Man killed in collision between car and lorry near Perpignan is 10th person to die during protests

A driver died after a car collided with a lorry stopped at a gilets jaunes protest in France.

The accident happened late on Friday near the southern city of Perpignan at a motorway toll booth.

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The man, aged 36, is the 10th person to die during more than five weeks of protests by the gilets jaunes, named after the high-visibility yellow jackets French drivers must carry in their cars.

Saturday’s action was act 6 of the national movement, sparked by a new eco-tax on petrol and diesel – since dropped – that has adopted new demands including government by people’s referendums and the dissolution of parliament.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, announced emergency measures including a rise in the minimum wage, the dropping of a controversial tax on pensions and tax-free overtime. The French Assemblée Nationale passed the measures last week.

The gilets jaunes avoided the Champs-Elysées on Saturday. The celebrated boulevard has been the scene of violent clashes between protesters and police over the past few weeks.

Instead, there was a last-minute demonstration at Montmartre at the foot of Sacré-Coeur, popular with tourists.

Gilets jaunes blocked the motorway at Saint-Étienne in the Loire and set fire to tyres that sent clouds of thick black smoke across the area.

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The French authorities said they had reduced the number of police and security forces deployed across the country. Around 4,100 officers were deployed on Saturday, 1,225 in Paris, half the force used in previous weeks.

Benjamin Cauchy, a spokesman for a group calling itself Gilets Jaunes Libres (Free Yellow Vests), insisted that despite the greatly reduced turnout, the protests were not running out of steam.

He said the movement would “continue the fight” to ensure “2019 will be a political stalemate for Emmanuel Macron”.

“Even if they [the gilets jaunes] are not mobilised across the territory today … there is still a crystallisation of the protest.”