The anti-tax, anti-government protest led by the French working class entered its fourth weekend on December 8, and witnessed escalated efforts both by the agitators in Paris, and the police who used tear gas and water cannons to quell fears of rioting. According to Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, 125,000 people participated in the gilet jaunes movement around the country, and at least 1,385 protesters were arrested during the fourth weekend of the “yellow vest” demonstrations.
Of the 89,000-strong security personnel deployed across France this weekend, security forces put 8,000 on the streets of the capital to contain the violence. They sent parts of the city into lockdown before dawn and frisking extremist troublemakers that resulted in hundreds of pre-emptive arrests.
The mass protests also spread to neighbouring Belgium and Netherlands.
What happened in Paris?
In Paris, which was the worst hit, the police prevented a concentration of violence and destruction around the Champs Élysées, but in doing so, dispersed pockets of protesters around the capital causing more widespread chaos and damage. Monuments such the Eiffel Tower were also cordoned off to ensure that monuments were not vandalised as they were the previous weekend, when protestors smashed the statue of Marianne inside the Arc de Triomphe.
Statue of Marianne destroyed on December 1, 2018 in Paris. Credit: KRIS AUS67/Flickr. CC BY 2.0Despite the furious and heavy-handed police repression, the aggressive faction of the gilet jaunes succeeded in mounting armoured vehicles, creating roadblocks, and setting fires across the city, though most of them protested peacefully around the country.
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How has the French government and the world responded?
While the violence was markedly less than last weekend, which had registered the most violent protest in France in 50 years, there is still no sign of dissipation of the civil unrest, as French President Emmanuel Macron’s failure to listen and respond to the demands becomes more pronounced. He still maintains that the hike in fuel taxes was in keeping with the Paris Climate Accord, and was necessary to tackle the threat of climate change.
American President Donald Trump, who pulled out of the Paris Accord, leapt at the chance to criticise and blame Macron’s environmental laws for the social unrest, with a controversial tweet on Saturday.
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said that the protests in Paris will have an economic impact. Both far-right and far-left parties in Germany voiced support for the gilets jaunes while London Mayor Sadiq Khan hailed the French protestors for choosing hope over fear, and unity over division.
Last week, Macron had announced that his government would drop the eco-tax to pacify the gilets jaunes, but protesters said the measure is too little, too late. The French government has also announced a six-month suspension of the fuel tax.
On Monday morning, Macron met local and national political leaders, unions and business leaders to hear their concerns, amidst accusations of being out of touch with the common mass. Government officials said that the 40-year-old centrist would announce immediate and concrete measures to respond to protesters grievances this week.
A grass roots movement at risk
Police sources said they believed the real gilet jaunes had again been hijacked by extremist and nationalist elements from the Left and Right, and anarchist black bloc groups, making it increasingly difficult for them to distinguish between infiltrators and ordinary civilians. Authorities have also blamed professional rioters from the right and the left for fuelling anti-government sentiments and infiltrating the protests.
Much of the destruction in Paris was caused by these gangs of casseurs, or urban guerrillas, determined to loot and pillage, some of whom were wearing gilet jaunes (yellow high-visibility vests) that have become the eponymous symbol of the movement. Despite some participants telling the media that they were apolitical, they acknowledged the external attempts by these extremists to hijack the movement following recent developments.
Although the yellow vest movement wasnt organised by the Left, many are hopeful that the fight to widen the demands of the working classes is key to blocking the growth of Marine Le Pens far-right.
However, disturbing footage of police brutality against disabled and female protestors, and school children being rounded up have surfaced, putting the real agenda of the protests in question.
In a number of other instances, French police have also refused to move against the gilet jaunes. According to a few people,the fight has arguably turned into one against globalisation the plutocrats, bankers, elite and the intellectuals who have monopolised France and birthed neo-feudalism. The movement is a manifestation of the growing discontent amongst the unprivilged whose interests are seemingly not served by the current government.
The possibility of a Frexit from the EU is also being floated among their demands which already include anti-immigration policies, in addition to a ban on monoculture, lobbies, ideologues, and more media diversity and smaller banks. The drive to save the actual/original nation can often be waylaid by the spirit of nationalism that easily metamorphoses into jingoism, especially in a leaderless mass movement that is already spreading beyond French boundaries like wildfire.
Whta’s happened in Belgium and Netherlands?
The rioting spread to Frances neighbours last weekend, when Belgian police fired tear gas and water cannons at gilet jaunes. In Brussels, where protestors staged walkouts and took to the streets against higher fuel prices, the agitation soon turned violent after protesters damaged public property and clashed with security forces, calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Charles Michel.
During the clashes, the agitators blocked arterial roads, threw stun grenades, and damaged traffic signals. They also threw paving stones, road signs, fireworks, flares and other projectiles at police and were intercepted on their march towards the European Parliament. Water cannons and pepper spray were used to disperse the demonstrators, 100 of whom have been detained.
In the Dutch cities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, a few hundred protesters wearing yellow vests walked downtown, singing and handing flowers to passers-by, urging them to join the movement against rising costs of living and economic deterioration of the working class. Another 100 protesters held a peaceful demonstration outside the Dutch parliament at the Hague.
Security has been heightened in both the countries as more protests are planned in the coming days.
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Who are the gilet jaunes and what do they want?
For the last few weeks, France has been gripped by mass mobilisation of the gilets jaunes or yellow vests comprising mostly civilians, who have been protesting against the increase in fuel prices and living costs, every Saturday since November 17. The gilet jaunes are daily wage-earners who come from smaller towns and rural areas, not large urban centres. Their struggle is against the political-economic elite, fuelled by the introduction of a regressive fuel tax that would undercut their already declining living standards.
But what began as a fuel tax protest by French drivers over the 17% hike soon fuelled a larger anti-government sentiment among men and women, employees, precarious workers, those on unemployment benefits, the economically inactive, retirees, teachers, businessmen, and workers from all over the country. For these peripheral French men and women, who formed a majority of the protestors, Macron is seen as a wealthy and aloof figure, oblivious to the struggles of ordinary citizens.
What has happened so far?
On the first day itself, the movement saw some 282,000 anti-government protestors mounting roadblocks across the country, conducting snail operations to slow traffic and over 2000 actions to defy tolls leading to almost four hundred arrests, several hundred injured, and one dead.
On the next Saturday, November 24, 106,000 people took part in the protests according to the Interior Ministry estimate, with 800 of them agitating in Paris. Demonstrators managed to approach the central Avenue des
A gilet jaune protestor throws a barricade at a police van in Paris on December 1, 2018. Credit: KRIS AUS67/Flickr. CC BY 2.0Champs-Élysées, sparking violent clashes with police that continued throughout the day.
On the third straight weekend of the riots, thousands of protesters stormed the streets of Paris, leaving torched cars, smashed windows and vandalised stores in their wake. Police said that 133 people were injured, including 23 police officers. Protestors also smashed the iconic statue of Marianne inside the Arc de Triomphe, in an act that symbolised the breakdown of liberty, equality and fraternity that the French constitution embodies.
Prarthana Mitra is a staff writer at Qrius