The Reds Confront the Yellows

The red scarves say they are defending democracy and opposing violence. Image credit: Reuters

"Don't touch my republic" this red scarf protester declared. Image credit: AFP 

Across France, about 69,000 people took part in the eleventh consecutive weekend of yellow-vest (gilets jaunes) protests the interior ministry said. 

But now, a group calling itself the red scarves has held a march in Paris to counter weeks of anti-government protests by the yellow-vest movement. 

The "foulards rouges" are demanding an end to the violence witnessed at yellow-vest rallies. 

Note: The gilets jaunes movement grew out of fuel tax protests in November. It now embraces wider discontent with President Emmanuel Macron and has supposedly seen some of the most serious street violence in Paris since 1968. 

But the weeks of TV footage showing clashes with riot police and damage to public monuments have triggered a counter-movement and the red scarves now have about 21,000 followers on Facebook. More than 10,000 people took part in Sunday's march, Le Figaro reported. 

Just as quickly, a crack has appeared among the red scarves. One side is supportive of Macron and the other side does not. Laurent Soulié has rallied supporters on Facebook to back the president, RFI reported. And the other side, supposedly under Alex Brun, insisted the foulards rouges were "an apolitical citizens' movement". 

I can see that this whole situation will become very messy. 

Saturday’s match between Celtic and Hamilton Academical saw the former winning 3-0. Three different scorers, i.e. Callum McGregor (40), Ryan Christie (77) and Scott Sinclair (87) and the three goals helped their team move three points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership.