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Is ‘Gilets Jaunes’ a French version of a much more global phenomenon?

SHAFAQNA | by Nasibeh Yazdani In his first speak to the French people after four weeks of anti-government protest (gilets jaunes) movement, Macron said he took his “share of responsibility” for the anger in France and promise to respond to the “economic and social emergency” facing France with “strong measures”.

Macron announced tax cuts and income increases for the struggling middle class and working poor, vowing to raise the pay of workers earning the minimum wage. He promised to listen to the voices of the country, to its small-town mayors and its working people.

“There is anger, anger and indignation that many French share,” he said in 13-minute prerecorded speech from the Elysée, the presidential palace.

Attempting to show that he understood, Mr. Macron acknowledged the anger of “the couple who earn salaries that do not finish the month, and who get up every day early and come home late.” He sympathized with “the single mother, a widow, a divorcée,” whose life is no longer worth living, he said, and “has no more hope.”

Mr. Macron recognized the anger too, he said, of retired people of small means who have “contributed all their lives and often helped both parents and children, and no longer make ends meet.”

Macron said he took his “share of responsibility” for the anger gripping France. He also admitted that “I might have hurt people with my words” in the past, which have included telling an unemployed man he need only “cross the street” to find work and suggesting some French workers are “lazy”, nytimes reported

But his mea culpa was, according to Cautrès, the “bare minimum”, coming with a caveat as Macron sought to “point the finger” at what the French president termed the “40 years of malaise that has risen to the surface”, FRANCE24 reported.

The speech followed a month of turmoil in which a movement known as the Yellow Vests rampaged through Paris and other French cities.

GROUPS OF “YELLOW vest” protesters across France responded scathingly to the “crumbs” offered by President Emmanuel Macron in a speech intended to defuse their revolt, but others acknowledged his efforts.

“Nonsense,” “a charade”, “a bluff” and “a drop in the ocean,” were among the immediate reactions that greeted the head of state’s televised speech yesterday evening announcing an increase in the minimum wage and a range of other financial measures, The Journal told.

“Maybe if Macron had made this speech three weeks ago, it would have calmed the movement, but now it’s too late,” said Gaetan, 34, one of the ‘Rennes Lapins Jaunes’ (Yellow Rabbits of Rennes). “For us, this speech is nonsense.”

Who are the gilets jaunes?

The “gilets jaunes” (yellow vest) movement sprang up in late October against increases in fuel taxes , 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 guardian noticed.

While the protests began over fuel taxes, they have snowballed into a wider movement against Mr Macron, largely among people in small-town and rural France.

Many accuse the former investment banker of being an arrogant “president of the rich” who is out of touch with the struggles of ordinary people in the provinces.

Originally a grassroots movement, the “gilets jaunes” first emerged online with Facebook events set up by citizens mostly from deprived rural areas. Because protesters wear the fluorescent yellow high-vis jackets that all motorists must by law carry in their cars.

Organisers have called protests every Saturday since, which degenerated on December 1 into running battles with police in Paris, where more than 200 vehicles were burned and 412 people arrested.

Unlike previous French 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.

The protests were originally about fuel prices but have grown and expanded to include other grievances and demands in response to declining living standards and higher cost of living in France.

What are the protesters’ 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.

Different protesters have different aims, and there is no widely recognised group of leaders for the movement which took root on social media.

They want a change of government policies which they see as favouring the rich, a change in a government seen as too technocratic, and for some, a change at the very top.

All say their low incomes mean they cannot make ends meet at the end of the month.

Some remain focused on lowering fuel taxes and other financial burdens, saying low-income families in particular are paying the price for Mr Macron’s push to reform and revive the French economy.

Others have made it personal and say Mr Macron must resign, still fuming over his decision to cut taxes for the highest earners shortly after sweeping to the presidency last year.

Some are particularly outraged at a president they see as extravagant, after he ordered a new set of china for the Elysee Palace for a reported €500,000 (Dh2 million) and a new carpet worth a reported €300,000.

An immediate increase in the minimum wage and pension benefits has also been a rallying cry.

Sandine, a mother-of six living in the suburbs of Paris and working as a school cleaner and dinner lady, said she was “sick and tired” of struggling to keep her head above the financial waters. She claimed that although she had steered clear of rioting, she had still been subject to police brutality.

Discussing her loss of hope in politicians, Sandine said: “I voted for Macron, but I regret it. I’m anti-Le Pen so I didn’t have a choice. I thought Macron was young and he would do good things, but he’s just part of the rich. Now I wouldn’t vote for anyone.”

Alexis, a 21-year-old construction worker who lives on an estate near Disneyland Paris, and attended the protest with his parents, said: “I can’t live on my salary. If it wasn’t for my parents I would probably be on the street. The government needs to help us. I can’t even afford to take my girlfriend out for dinner. The only meal I can afford to make is pasta.

Another demonstrator, Jean-Loup, a psychologist, said he was joining the protests because “the poor are living in misery while the rich are getting richer”.

He continued: “For a lot of these people it’s about Macron, he’s the target, because he’s the ‘president of the rich’. But for me, it goes beyond Macron, because if we get rid of him it would remain the same. This is about people living in misery.”

How have the protests escalated?

The movement has since come to represent a deeply rooted social anger that has more to do with the personality of Macron than it does with any particular policy.

Taking this more forceful approach, a minority of demonstrators set objects alight in the middle of the road, ripped down signs and smashed shop windows. The police, with about a dozen officers on almost every street corner, flanked by rows of vans and in some cases armoured vehicles, were ready to act, Independent told.

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, The Guardian reported.

The Independent spoke to one young protester moments after he was shot in the leg by a rubber bullet and left struggling to walk following a kettling incident. Brandon, 22, had to be treated by medics who were among the protesters.

His friend Romain, 32, said: “The police were advancing in on us and we walked forward a bit, but we didn’t throw stones or anything like that. We were about 50 metres away from them and they shot at him, just like that.”

Opinion polls show 70 to 80 per cent of respondents backing the protesters, even as Mr Macron’s approval ratings plunged to record low of 23 per cent in an Ifop-Fiducial survey this past week, The National reported.

France wants Trump not to meddle in the country’s domestic policies

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Sunday urged US President Donald Trump to refrain from commenting on the protests in France and not to meddle in the country’s domestic policies.

“I say to Donald Trump, and the President of the Republic [Emmanuel Macron] has also said: we do not take part in American debates, allow us to live our life as a nation,” Le Driat told LCI television.

Trump on Saturday posted two tweets referring to the “yellow vest” anti-government protests, saying the Paris Agreement on climate change wasn’t “working out so well for Paris.”

When asked about Trump’s remarks, Le Drian also said the US President should “be careful with what he said.”

“Most Americans do not agree with his decision to break away from the Paris agreement,” he added, CNN reported.

Protests beyond France

The movement has spread beyond France’s borders, with around 400 arrested at a “yellow vest” event in Brussels on Saturday and peaceful demonstrations taking place in Dutch towns.

Dominique Moisi, a foreign policy expert at the Paris-based Institut Montaigne and a former Macron campaign adviser told CNN the French presidency was not only in crisis but that Europe’s future also hung in the balance:

“In a few months from now there will be European elections, and France was supposed to be the carrier of hope and European progress. What happens if it’s no longer? If the president is incapacitated to carry that message? And it’s about the future of democracy, as well, illiberal democracies are rising all over the world.

“And if Macron fails the future of France risks looking like the presidency of Italy today. And it’s much more serious because we have a centralized state which plays a major role in the balance of power within Europe. But make no mistake, it is a French version of a much more global phenomenon.”

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