Shortly before 8.45 am, a total of 60 demonstrators – wearing fluorescent yellow jackets – lay down on the ground on the roundabout near to the vehicle check-in and, despite requests from officers, refused to move.
The action prevented some vehicles from leaving the port and subsequently, at 11 am, police began forcibly removing them from the area, with videos showing officers dragging protesters out of the way.
Violence then erupted and the police began using pepper spray to bring the situation under control and arrested three people.
The action was part of the national ‘gilets jaunes’ [yellow jackets] movement which began in November. It initially started as a campaign against the rise in fuel prices but has now evolved into a general protest against high living costs.
In retaliation for the three arrests, the protestors then moved to the city’s police station where they were alleged to have caused damage to nearby CCTV cameras and tried to set fire to items in the street.
A video online also showed a man, who tried to stop a doctor’s car from breaking through the protest, being carried around 30 metres on the front of the vehicle before falling off.
Police soon moved in to break up the protest, using pepper spray once again.
A demonstration also took place outside the railway station but it was reported to have passed without incident.
Yesterday Paul Luxon, Condor’s chief executive, said that although Brittany Ferries’ services were affected, passengers to Jersey were not disrupted.
‘On Saturday, there was no impact to the passenger service and they [the protesters] have very much clarified that they do not want to disrupt passengers,’ he said. ‘They did cause disruption to Brittany Ferries’ freight but we managed to sort ours out with no problem and the police were very quick in dispersing the protesters’ efforts.’
Mr Luxon added that the nature of the demonstrations was very unpredictable and advised passengers to allow extra time to complete their journeys.
‘We have been advising passengers to give themselves more time, as the protests are very inconsistent. Some weeks they protest, others they do not, sometimes it is just a handful and other times there are a few dozen protestors.’
Meanwhile, in Paris during the same weekend, motorcycles, bins and a riverboat were set on fire after protests turned violent.
And a government spokesman had to be evacuated from his office into a nearby hotel after several individuals rammed their way through the building’s doors using a construction vehicle.
The protests are expected to continue.
