Who are the gilets jaunes?
A grassroots citizens’ protest movement began in early November against a planned rise in the tax on diesel and petrol, which Emmanuel Macron insisted would aid the country’s transition to green energy. A poll at the time found that the price of fuel had become France’s biggest talking point.
The movement was named “gilets jaunes” (yellow vests) because protesters wear the fluorescent yellow high-vis jackets that all motorists must by law carry in their cars. But what began as a fuel tax protest has now morphed into a wider anti-government movement.
Unlike previous French protest movements, it sprang up online through petitions and was organised by ordinary working people posting videos on social media, without a set leader, trade union or political party behind it.
A first national day of protests was held across France on Saturday 17 November and the protests have continued daily, including roadblocks, barricades of roundabouts and the blockading of fuel depots.
How have the protests escalated?
The French interior ministry says the total number of people demonstrating has dropped since its peak on 17 November, when about 285,000 people demonstrated across France. On 1 December, two weeks after the first protests, the interior ministry said that at 3pm 75,000 people were on the streets. It is thought that about 100,000 in total demonstrated in France throughout the day.
However, violence has escalated at the weekly Paris protests held on Saturdays. While thousands demonstrated peacefully on 1 December, about 3,000 people fought running battles with police, burned more than 100 cars, set fire to several buildings and smashed bank windows and shopfronts on some of the most expensive streets in the capital.
Authorities blamed extreme-right and extreme-left “professional” rioters for infiltrating the peaceful demonstrations. The Paris prosecutor said a majority of the more than 300 people in police custody after the Paris violence were men aged between 30 and 40 who “had come to fight police while also claiming to be part of the gilets jaunes movement”.
There were also violent clashes with police in Toulouse. In Le Puy-en-Velay, the local prefect’s office was petrol-bombed and briefly caught fire.
Gilets jaunes protesters in other regions continue to stage roadblocks, and some fuel depots have been blocked in the north-west. Some high-school students have also now joined the movement and barricaded schools.
A poll for Harris Interactive conducted after Saturday’s violence in Paris found 72% of French people continued to support the gilets jaunes but 85% said they disagreed with the violence in Paris.
Who are the protesters and what are their grievances?
Protesters have largely come from peripheral towns, cities and rural areas across France and include many women and single mothers. Most of the protesters have jobs, including as secretaries, IT workers, factory workers, delivery workers and care workers. All say their low incomes mean they cannot make ends meet at the end of the month.
The movement is predominantly against a tax system perceived as unfair and unjust, but there are numerous grievances and differences of opinion. Most want to scrap the fuel taxes, hold a review of the tax system, raise the minimum wage and roll back Macron’s tax cuts for the wealthy and his pro-business economic programme. But some also want parliament dissolved and Macron to resign.
What are the implications for Macron and France?
This is the first big crisis of Macron’s presidency. The 40-year-old pro-business, pro-Europe centrist has staked his political identity on insisting he would never give in to street protests. But polls suggest he is seen as not listening to the concerns of ordinary working people on low incomes, and he is under pressure to make concessions.
It is damaging that Macron – whose own fledgling political movement, La République En Marche, was styled as a grassroots movement to listen to the people – was taken by surprise by this sudden tax revolt. Although Macron beat the far-right Marine Le Pen in last year’s presidential election, the mood of distrust of the political class never went away.
The question is what Macron could now offer to calm the protests and whether he now tweaks his economic policy. The first 18 months of Macron’s presidency were defined by his drive for businesses to become more competitive; he has cut taxes on companies and transformed France’s wealth tax, easing the tax burden on the very wealthy.
Macron is now under pressure to consider the gilets jaunes’ demands, which include scrapping the eco tax and raising the minimum wage. It is uncertain what measures the government might propose in the coming days. The economy minister, Bruno Le Maire, said on Monday that the government should press on with lowering taxes but at the same time lower France’s high public spending.
