Smoke rises during a protest by yellow vest protesters against rising fuel taxes near Arc de triomphe de l'Etoile in Paris, France on December 01, 2018.

France's yellow vest protesters were back on the streets Saturday to keep pressure on French President Emmanuel Macron's government and denounce the large number of people injured in demonstrations they say is the result of police violence.

Multiple protests were planned in Paris and other cities to denounce Macron's economic policies, seen by critics as favoring the rich, for the 12th straight weekend of demonstrations.

This week, demonstrators in the French capital want to pay tribute to the yellow vests injured during clashes with police.

The government says around 2,000 people have been injured in protests since the movement began Nov. 17, including at least four serious eye injuries. Separately, 10 people have died in road incidents related to yellow vest actions.

Several hundreds of demonstrators gathered at midday on a plaza in eastern Paris. Chanting anti-government slogans, they were heading toward the Republic plaza, in the northeast of the city center.

Among them, Jerome Rodrigues, a prominent member of the movement who suffered an eye injury last week, was widely applauded by the crowd.

A French police investigation was still ongoing to determine how Rodrigues was injured. Video images show Rodriguez collapsed on the ground last Saturday near the Bastille monument, where protesters throwing projectiles clashed with police seeking to disperse them.

France's Council of State ruled Friday that security forces have a right to use controversial high-velocity rubber ball launchers for crowd control.

Benjamin Cauchy, a yellow vest spokesman from southern France who came to the Paris protest, called it a "regrettable decision" on BFM television, saying the weapon "is extremely harmful, imprecise and in the end is causing more sorrow than security."