The Yellow Vest Protests
Just to recap in case anyone hasn’t heard, the Yellow Vest Protests have been happening in France for around 6 months now (as of April 11th) and are the working class of France protesting how high taxes and bills have gone up and were projected to go up. Beginning with small-town workers mostly middle to lower class people and has grown to include paramedics and schools, who are protesting the changes in education that have been made. By now everything has settled down and the issue is being thoroughly looked at. But I’ll get to that in a bit, first lets see how it started and where it went.
As mentioned above, this all really started with projected rises in the price of diesel fuel (a rise of about 20%). In President Macron’s, the man behind the rise, defense it was supposed to encourage everyone to fight for the well-being of our Earth and battle climate change. But this didn’t sit well with the small-town workers and lower-to-middle class citizens who either rely on their car to get everywhere, or are just barely scraping by in general. For them they believe Macron was only working for the benefit of the upper class and city people. Although this wasn’t true seen in how President Macron handles this situation, but we’ll look at that a little later.
Later that month on the 24th the protests turned violent catching everyone’s attention.
First we must talk about the protests, both the peaceful and violent ones. The first protest that caught international attention and really showed just how bad things were getting, was the protest on November 17. 300,000 protesters flooded the streets and used slow trucks to block them. Later that month on the 24th the protests turned violent catching everyone’s attention.
This is because France isn’t really known for very violent protests the only famous one that comes to mind being the French Revolution. For the most part their able to solve conflicts with peaceful protests.
The protest on the 24th had only half the amount as the one on the 17th, 106,000 people, but that didn’t change the damage done. During this protest, police fired tear gas and water cannons on the protesters, it became particularly violent in Paris where 8,000 people were protesting. Two people died and 750 were injured, spreading abroad to French territories like the Indian Ocean island of Reunion. By this time President Macron’s popularity has decreased to 20%.
One slogan read: “The Yellow Vests will Triumph”
I wish I could say that was the end of the violence but that just wouldn’t be true. On December 1st violent riots broke out across Paris. There were protests all over the country but the ones in Paris were what caught everyone’s attention. Looting, cars being torched, and protesters set on destruction mixed with the Yellow Vest Protesters were among the damaging causes. The Arc de Triomphe was vandalized inside and graffiti was painted along the outside of it. One slogan read: “The Yellow Vests will Triumph”. 400 people were arrested during this time.
Some of the organizers of the Yellow Vest Protests were quick to emphasize that this movement did not want to focus on violence and those individuals acted on their own accord. Jason Herbert (a representative of the Yellow Vests) said that he and other leaders have had to cancel meetings with government officials because the movement was starting to radicalize and they were receiving threats. Four were killed and hundreds injured in the Paris riots.
“The problem is, who actually came to the debates, in relation to those we never hear from? It was people who were already in the know. Those who weren’t either didn’t come or didn’t talk.”
On Monday April 1st President Macron set out around the country to actually talk in public gatherings about the issues at hand. He talked one on one with many individuals and found across the board that everyone wanted lower taxes and no cuts to services. At this point service people had also been protesting, including ambulance drivers and high schoolers with their teachers. This act of traveling the country has been dubbed the ‘Great National Debate’ and many Yellow Vest leaders and followers disagree with this strategy. It’s said that most of the attendees of the debates across the country were elderly and retired people, because they have the time to go and do this.
On Saturday the 6th however, the protests reached a new low of only 22,300 people. Jean -Michel Clément told New York Times, “The problem is, who actually came to the debates, in relation to those we never hear from? It was people who were already in the know. Those who weren’t either didn’t come or didn’t talk”. Many of the Yellow Vests believed that they still were not represented in the debate, but since Macron is trying to compromise on taxes they have slipped in numbers.
The last update I have has to do with Notre-Dame. As many readers will already know, on April 15th the world famous cathedral caught fire during renovations. The possible price of rebuilding/restoring the damaged parts was projected in the millions, and the world was shocked to see French and other world billionaires put forth 1.1 billion dollars to pay for it in just a single day. Of course this re-sparked the Yellow Vests, furious at how that much money was just being given up like it was nothing. They are mostly lower-middle class workers. Possibly they work for these billionaires companies. Most of them are just scraping by in life. It is important to note that Notre Dame is important, but 1.1 billion dollars seems like quite a lot for this church, when they were fighting for wealth equality.
On Saturday April 20th the protests were renewed and possibly as violent as ever. There were 6,700 protesters in Paris and over 10,000 across the country. They set fire to barricades, cars, and motorbikes. 189 people were detained and they took 110 into custody. Police fired water cannons and tear gas on the protesters while firefighters ran across the city to put out fires that had been set.
It’s difficult to know how this will play out, but I’ll keep updating as it goes. For now, we now that Macron has had and will have multiple meetings in response to the Yellow Vests requests for lower taxes, while still trying to maintain his national popularity.
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Text Sources
Al Jazeera. “French Police Fire Tear Gas, Water Cannon at Protesters in Paris.” News | Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, 25 Nov. 2018, www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/paris-police-tear-gas-disperse-yellow-vest-protest-181124110401053.html.
Al Jazeera. “The ‘Yellow Vest’ Movement Explained.” Macron News | Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, 4 Dec. 2018, www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/happening-france-yellow-vest-movement-explained-181204153014250.html.
Nossiter, Adam. “Macron’s Great Debate Finds What France Wants: Lower Taxes, No Cuts to Services.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 Apr. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/04/08/world/europe/france-macron-yellow-vest.html.
Raphelson, Samantha. “Yellow Vest Protesters Fueled By Anger Over Notre Dame Funds March In Paris.” NPR, NPR, 20 Apr. 2019, www.npr.org/2019/04/20/715470174/yellow-vest-protesters-fueled-by-anger-over-notre-dame-funds-march-in-paris.
Image Sources
LEUNG, Christophe. “Yellow Vests — Act 8.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 12 Jan. 2019, www.flickr.com/photos/toff78/45986656054.
LEUNG, Christophe. “Yellow Vests — Act 8.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 12 Jan. 2019, www.flickr.com/photos/toff78/46658623362.
“Yellow Vests Protest.” Edited by WIkimedia, Yellow Vest Protests, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yellow_vests_protest6.jpg
