YELLOW FEVER STRIKES FRANCE
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| Armored vehicles on the Champs Elysées |
"This is Not a Government" read a newspaper headline (with a wink to Magritte). It featured a picture of last
week's violent clashes in Paris between riot police backed up by armored
vehicles and demonstrators wearing the yellow safety vests (
gilets jaunes) required in every car.
Front page news at home and abroad, this yellow-vest protest against a fuel tax
hike was deteriorating into urban warfare.
Street protests and strikes are as French as the
baguette and part of daily life here.
They are organized by trade unions, student groups, or professional
associations who usually demand wage increases or object to some government
decision or other. But this Gilets Jaunes protest against the sharp increase in
fuel taxes next year has no apparent leader, is not affiliated with any
political party or trade union, and was sparked on social networks where it set
fire to the combustible cloud of discontent voiced by a disparate population of
indeterminate age and background that grew to unexpected proportions in record
time. Laborers, farmers, employees, small business owners, retirees on fixed
incomes
−
they all reject the 23% increase in the price of gas which, being the latest in
a string of price increases this year, would significantly affect their
purchasing power. Particularly those outside the big cities who need to use
their car to get to work, would find it harder to make ends meet. Even if they
approve of the government's intended goal of fighting pollution by reducing the
number of cars on the road as part of its Ecological Transition Plan, they feel
strongly that it is always their group, the middle class, that is asked to pay,
and not the rich who got tax breaks or the poor who are exempt. No More Taxes,
they cried, Enough is Enough!
ANATOMY OF A MISTAKE
One of the first acts of newly elected president Macron in
2017 was to scrap the wealth tax, the ISF (Impôt
Sur la Fortune), in order to stimulate growth. This, more than anything
else, has earned him the reputation of president of the rich, even though
economists generally supported the measure. In France, like elsewhere, the rich
are getting richer and the gap between rich and poor is growing wider. Over
time, the resentment against the growing cost of living and the government's
deaf ear finally led to the current explosion of anger that is about to enter
its fifth week of demonstrations.
The unrest started in mid-November, when to
everyone's surprise a strong response to the call on Facebook caused
thousands of people to take to the streets, wearing high-visibility yellow
vests, to protest against the planned fuel tax. They handed out pamphlets,
occupied roundabouts, built roadblocks, blocked toll stations and oil
refineries. As usual, the public supported the protesters and soon the Gilets
Jaunes took their cause to Paris where the following Saturday they organized a
demonstration on the Champs Elysées. This time, their
manif, as these protests are called, was infiltrated by outside
hooligans and looters (
casseurs) in
yellow vests who attacked the police with paving stones, threw up barricades,
smashed windows, set fires, outshouted the protesters and disrupted their
demonstration.
Subsequently, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe invited the
Gilets Jaunes to meet him at his Matignon office to discuss their grievances,
but of the six elected representatives only two showed up and one left after a
few minutes. This was a grassroots movement, an amorphous group without
leadership or spokesperson, leaving the government at a loss of how to respond
or who to talk to. These demonstrators were not the oft-forgotten poor, but
working people from the extreme left and right who found common ground in
feeling that they were over-taxed and losing purchasing power.
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| Clean-up at the Arc de Triomphe |
As frustration began building and the tone hardened, another
march on the Champs Elysées was called on Saturday, December 1st, but this time
the authorities had blocked all side roads to the Champs Elysées in an effort
to keep out the
casseurs and prevent
further incidents. Unfortunately, access to the Champs Elysées was still open
via the Place de l'Etoile and this is where a large number of hooligans and
anarchists managed to mingle with the demonstrators and started defacing the
Arc de Triomphe, spray-painting slogans on the façade and breaking into the
monument itself, where they wrecked furniture, destroyed a souvenir shop, and
smashed the face of a sculpted Marianne, the very symbol of the French Republic.
In an extremely violent confrontation with police that caused injuries on both
sides, they rampaged down the Champs Elysées where they set cars on fire,
smashed storefront windows and bus stops, looted a supermarket, wrenched
benches and iron gates from their moorings to throw at police, and left a trail
of ruin. Meanwhile, other troublemakers had managed to reach the Boulevard
Haussmann, dense with shoppers at the famous department stores Printemps and
Galeries Lafayette, where security personnel quickly shepherded shoppers to
safety and closed the doors. Lafayette, with its giant Christmas tree under the
beautiful glass dome, and its Holiday windows with automated fairytale displays
that draw big crowds every year, was a sad sight when those windows were boarded
up and the festive lights turned off.
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| Marianne defaced |
The demonstrations had turned ugly and dangerous, affecting
not only the retail sector in its busiest season, but also hotels and
restaurants, tourism, nightlife, and of course the Christmas markets. Minister
of the Interior Christophe Castaner had to admit that the security measures had
been inadequate and promised that next Saturday, December 8th, the police
presence would be doubled (89,000 police nationwide, with 8,000 in Paris alone)
and that this time the riot police would be supported by armored vehicles,
capable of removing whatever burning barricades the protesters might throw up
and provide essential protection to the police who had been badly tested for
weeks already and sustained many injuries. Football matches were cancelled,
both opera houses and some theaters closed, as were the Louvre and the Eiffel
Tower, while businesses were asked to stay closed that day and board up
their windows.
The authorities prepared the Champs Elysées by removing all
items that might be used to hurl at the police, including iron grates and
manhole covers, and installed a number of checkpoints where items such as
hammers, gas masks,
boules, spray
paint, and molotov cocktails were confiscated. This time security forces were
able to keep control of the Champs Elysées and arrest a large number of
troublemakers. Nothing, however, could stop the violence that broke out on and
around the Place de la République, which suffered extensive damage. Other
cities, notably the beautiful old center of Bordeaux, experienced similar
violence and destruction, including the looting of an Apple store that was
completely cleaned out. A shaken Mayor of Bordeaux and former French Prime
Minister Alain Juppé called on President Macron to break his silence and
respond in strong, concrete terms to the Gilets Jaunes' demands.
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| Hooligans at work |
After four Saturdays of increasingly violent demonstrations
that caused millions of euros of material damage and an estimated €1.1 billion
of business losses so far, as well as 179 personal injuries, six deaths (mostly
due to road accidents), nearly 2000 arrests nationwide, and with determined
protesters vowing to continue until Christmas and beyond, the Gilets Jaunes
protest has turned personal and cries for Macron's resignation have multiplied.
They accuse him of arrogance and contempt for their class, and their ranks were soon joined
by high school students, environmentalists, as well as union leaders, all with
their own demands and all feeling they were "not being heard." This
was no longer about tax relief, it was a groundswell of discontent and a cry
for social justice that was ballooning into a crisis.
Prime Minister Philippe and Interior Minister Castaner had
repeatedly called for calm, reached out to the protesters and given in on a
number of demands (including the cancellation of the contested fuel tax). But
it was too little too late and, perceiving a crack in the government's
determination, they now wanted an increase in the minimum wage, lower taxes on
the middle class, and the re-imposition of the ISF wealth tax.
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| President Macron addressing the nation |
A somber-looking President Macron finally spoke on Monday, December
10, in a televised address that was short and sober. Starting off with a firm
condemnation of the violence and the promise that the perpetrators would be dealt
with severely, he sounded a more conciliatory tone towards the Gilets Jaunes
who he said deserved to "live decently from their work." Having
already dropped the fuel tax hike, he offered a €100 monthly pay increase to
minimum-wage earners as of January, the elimination of the planned tax hike on
retirees' pensions, and tax-exempt overtime pay for all employees. But he
refused to reinstate the ISF tax on the rich which had so rankled the
protesters and given rise to his reputation as president of the rich. The
offer was costly (estimated at €8-10 billion) and a severe setback for Macron,
but it fell short of expectations and the Gilets Jaunes were quick to announce their
next demonstration on the Champs Elysées on Saturday, December 15, calling it
Act V.
A closer look at the demonstrators' profile has revealed
some interesting facts. The movement counts as many women as men;
their average age at 45 is higher than usual; workers and retirees alike are
mostly from the lower middle class; and many of them had never demonstrated
before.
If this Gilets Jaunes movement proved anything, it is that
social networks can quickly bring masses of people together to form a powerful
force for or against a common cause, and that this can happen at any moment. A new challenge to those in government.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
It is hard to predict where this new phenomenon of
revolution by social networks will lead, but it is already clear that President
Macron's presidency has been damaged. The man who said he would never back down
was forced to do just that, at a high price in money and image. His Reforms
agenda will surely be slowed down and may have to be curtailed, and the boy
wonder who was elected president at age 39 with promises of long-needed reforms
has lost much of his luster after 19 months in a presidency marked by some
early successes but as many setbacks and missteps. His elite education and
unquestioned intelligence have served him well in his rapid rise to the top,
but he seems disconnected from ordinary people, the very people who now want to
be heard about life in their world, the real world. The success of this Gilets
Jaunes movement is only the latest example of this disconnect and what it
can lead to.
Is Macron getting it? Not sure, but "the street"
has won this first round and won't let him forget it.
Meanwhile in
Strasbourg:
Earlier this week a terrorist shot four people to death and
wounded 12 others as they strolled through the famous Christmas Market in
Strasbourg. He got away but was quickly identified as 29-year-old Shérif
Chekatt, a locally-born petty criminal with a long criminal record, and tracked
down and killed by police when he was cornered in his own neighborhood 48 hours later. The incident put the police on high alert and the government made
an appeal to the Gilets Jaunes to drop their planned Act V in
Paris this Saturday to give the exhausted police a break. No response. The march
will proceed as planned with the unspoken message to President Macron: You did
not listen to us; we will not listen to you.
As I write this, police are investing the area of the Champs Elysées where groups of Gilets Jaunes are beginning to arrive, awaited by armored vehicles and water cannons, ready to do battle once again amid boarded-up façades while desperate shopkeepers look on and count their losses in this crucial holiday season. No sign here of Peace on Earth to Men of Goodwill.
PS: This battle is not over, and I will keep you posted next week.
Will Christmas soften some hearts and bring protesters and government closer together? Will it open some eyes to the folly of war-like damage that will ultimately have to be paid by all? Will the government recognize that growing economic inequality is the root of all social unrest and find a workable solution?
Facing a less than joyous Christmas and a clean-slate New Year, all we can do is HOPE.
Those who continue to block traffic circles and toll stations are being forcibly removed by police, but not before a few more toll stations in the
south had been set on fire and destroyed this week. VINCI, one of the toll road
operators, estimated the damage due to vandalism and lost toll income at tens
of millions of euros, and overall loss of business in all sectors has climbed to an
estimated €2 billion to date. Even though the Gilets Jaunes have become less visible, the movement is far from dead and is now calling for an RIC (Référendum d'Initiative Citoyenne), a Citizens' Referendum. Small encampments of GJ have sprung up near road crossings or toll stations where they plan to spend Christmas, encouraged by supporters who stop by with hot meals and an occasional Christmas tree. The GJ promise to be back with more demonstrations after Christmas to push their demand for a Referendum as a counter power against the government.
A happy end for now? Perhaps - but could other protests be far
behind? President Macron's government does not seem to speak with one voice
these days. On several occasions, Prime Minister Philippe has made an
announcement that would be contradicted by Emmanuel Macron hours later, and
Interior Minister Castaner has been "corrected" as well. Everybody
seems stressed and overworked, and under pressure to solve current conflicts
this month so as to begin with a clean slate in January. Cracks are beginning to show, but so is the lack of political experience in Emmanuel Macron's young government. Fingers crossed for next year. 
As we wait and see how all this is going to play out, let's relax and enjoy this moment of calm to turn
to other matters. Such as food, the main subject in France at this time of the year, with
many cooking programs on TV, and truffles, foie gras, game, fowl, marrons glacés, and exotic fruits taking pride of place in food shops. In Aix-en-Provence, the
Christmas chalets are lined up along the Cours Mirabeau, and the popular Provençal
nativity scene is there again with santons
in traditional dress carrying offerings of lavender, olives, wheat or
chickens as they descend from their hill-top villages on their way to baby Jesus in the stable. The crowds are out and the mood seems festive, even though the heavily
armed soldiers on "Vigipirate" duty are a jarring presence.
