China Daily Global Edition (USA)
SINGLE SPARK IGNITES FRENCH ‘REVOLUTION’
Paris shop manager triggered yellow vest movement
When 33-year-old Priscillia Ludosky, who manages a small shop in a Paris suburb, started a petition on Facebook on May 29, she never thought it would spark a movement, or a revolution, as some have called it.
She started the petition to explain the burdens and struggles faced by the owners of small businesses and people on lower incomes because of high fuel prices.
On Nov 17, around 280,000 protesters took to streets across France in the first mass demonstration by the yellow vests, or gilets jaunes, the name for the high-visibility vests motorists are required to have in their vehicles.
Many of them communicated through messages on Facebook and other social media.
They were protesting a diesel fuel tax hike proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron earlier last year, aimed at encouraging renewable energy consumption.
The price of diesel has risen by 23 percent in the past year. Macron’s decision to impose a tax equivalent to 7 euro cents (8 US cents) on this fuel and about 3.5 cents on gasoline, originally scheduled to begin at the start of 2019 but canceled in early December, angered many, especially those living in the suburbs and small cities, who depend more on cars to commute than people living in Paris.
The so-called Act I of the yellow vest movement on Nov 17 was peaceful for the most part, but it turned violent in some places, causing one death, 409 injuries and 73 arrests. It made worldwide headlines, with graphic scenes of police using tear gas and water cannons, and protesters burning vehicles and looting stores.
In demonstrations staged in the following weeks, protesters, who were mostly peaceful, blocked roads and fuel depots and set fire to toll booths. Ten people have been killed in the protests, mostly in related traffic accidents.
Celine Fonarou traveled to Paris from Normandy, about 200 km away, with four friends to join the demonstrations. She said they were protesting against poverty and increased taxes. “Life is difficult, so difficult,” she said.
Her view was shared widely by the protesters, a diverse group that feels it has been marginalized by the government’s social and economic policies.
The protesters are demanding lower taxes, higher wages, better pensions, easy access to education and the reintroduction of a tax on wealth. Some have even called for Macron’s resignation and Citizen-Initiative Referendums, based on the bottom-up model of government in Switzerland.
A study by the French Economic Observatory shows that disposable income fell by 440 euros ($500) on average from 2008 to 2016.
There has been widespread support for the yellow vest movement in French society. Various opinion polls show that 60 to 70 percent of people support the movement but the majority are opposed to the violence being used in Paris and other cities.
In contrast, Macron’s approval rating dropped by two percentage points in November to 23 percent, according to a poll by the research group Ifop. The proportion of those who said they were “very dissatisfied” with Macron’s leadership rose by six points to 45 percent.
Despite having no leaders, the yellow vest movement snowballed across France when up to 166,000 took to the streets on the second and third weekends of demonstrations, with some clashing with police. Hundreds of injuries and thousands of arrests were reported.
On Dec 4, to appease the protesters, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced a moratorium on diesel fuel price rises. But the move failed to stop 136,000 demonstrators from turning out just four days later.
On and near the Champ Elysees in Paris, retailers expecting an influx of customers in the busy Christmas season had to close and board up their shop windows to guard against vandalism. Paris, a popular destination for international tourists, resembled a ghost town.
The French Retail Federation reported that traders in all sectors had lost some 1 billion euros since the protests started on Nov 17.
French media quoted Francois Asselin, head of the Confederation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, as saying that the protests could cost his members $10 billion.
On Dec 10, Macron made further concessions in a televised speech watched by 23 million people. He pledged a rise of 100 euros a month in the minimum wage and the abolition of an overtime tax, as well as excluding pensioners from a rise in social charges, known as CSG.
Macron, who became the youngest president in French history in May 2017 at age 39, told the nation he had heard and understood the protesters. He described their “anger and indignation” as “deep and in many ways legitimate”.
He also acknowledged that he had not been able to find solutions quickly enough since being elected. “I may have given you the impression that this was not my concern, that I had other priorities. I take my share of responsibility. I know I have hurt some of you with my words,” he said.
According to French media, Macron was referring to his perceived disdain for the working class. In June, he described welfare spending as “crazy money”, and in September, he told a young jobless gardener that it should be easy to find another job, adding, “Honestly, hotels, cafes and restaurants — if I walk across the street, I will find you something.”
While making multiple concessions, Macron made no compromise on the tax on the wealthy, despite being accused by many protesters of being a president for the rich.
“He is the president for the super rich,” said one protester who gave his name only as Jules. He was demonstrating with dozens of others outside the Palace of Versailles on Dec 22, termed Act VI of the Day of Rage. Several other protesters also declined to give their full names, with some saying the police were tracking them.
Macron’s speech and concessions had an impact. The number of protesters declined drastically on the weekends after his announcement, due also to cold weather and a terrorist shooting on Dec 11 at a Christmas market in Strasbourg, northeastern France.
Stephen Adelaide, a protester who lives in Versailles, described Macron’s concessions as “a joke”. “It is nothing,” he said, adding that for many people, the high cost of living means that their monthly salaries are only enough for 15 days.
Adelaide said it was the third time he had joined the yellow vest movement. He and two of his friends all agreed that life today is more difficult than a decade ago.
According to Olivier Dussopt, secretary of state to the French Ministry of Public Action and Accounts, the measures announced by Macron are likely to cost the government 8 to 10 billion euros.
Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the yellow vest movement will cost the country an estimated 0.1 percent of GDP growth in the critical year-end quarter.
The Bank of France has lowered its forecast for French economic growth for both 2017 and last year from 1.6 percent to 1.5 percent.
On New Year’s Eve, protesters again took to the streets in French cities, where some 150,000 members of security forces were deployed nationwide in a bid to avoid any potential violence.
The protests took place as Macron said in a 16-minute televised new year’s address that the French government “can do better” at improving people’s lives. But he said the movement’s protests would not persuade his administration to abandon its economic agenda.
Tomasz Michalski, an associate professor with the Economics and Decision Sciences Department at the HEC Paris business school, said Macron had adopted a lot of measures to help the rich, in the hope that efforts to attract entrepreneurs would help spur economic growth and reduce unemployment. “People have waited and waited for two years, but nothing happened,” he said.
According to Michalski, Macron also promised a special program for the less well-off in poorer cities and suburbs. “But he didn’t deliver this either,” he said.
An analysis of the 2018-19 budget carried out by the country’s Public Policy Institute showed that the poorest 25 percent of households would largely see their income fall or remain unchanged under Macron’s plans.
Middle-income earners would see a modest rise. However, the greatest beneficiaries would be those who are already in the top 1 percent of the country’s richest. The outlook is bleakest for retirees, almost all of whom will be worse off.
Michalski said that what really bothers most people is that the system of meritocracy is “somewhat broken” in French society and they find it hard for their children to succeed.
Andrew Smith, a senior lecturer at the University of Chichester in the United Kingdom and an expert on French politics, said Macron’s reforms have been popularly perceived to be benefiting the wealthy, and his personal style has been depicted as being increasingly aloof.
“There is a pervasive sense of inequality — be that regional, urban or class based. This has allowed many to project their own grievances onto the protest movement, broadening its support as well as its platform. The movement has spread quickly through Facebook groups and events,” Smith said.
He said Macron’s concessions appear to have taken some of the anger out of the protesters by addressing some of their specific demands, and the violence and damage in Paris had alienated some moderate supporters of the movement.
“Protests will recur, although it is unlikely that they will reach the same scale without some specific trigger or scandal,” he said.
Xavier Nuttin, a researcher at the European Institute for Asian Studies in Brussels, said there is a contradiction between demands for more public services and reduced taxes, but calls for more fiscal justice are certainly justified.
He said the protests have highlighted the profound social split between the elite and the lower and middle classes, who are the victims of globalization.
“They believed in globalization but now feel they have been betrayed and neglected by governments and institutions for many years,” he said, referring not only to the yellow vest movement in France but several others in Europe, including one in Brussels, where police arrested 400 out of 1,000 protesters on Dec 8.
Michalski said globalization is an easy scapegoat, and automation has cost many people their jobs.
Similar protests have been staged in countries such as Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Croatia and Bulgaria.
Michalski said the yellow vests protests can be compared with the Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States in 2011 and 2012.
This movement was crushed by the government, and its participants later became firm supporters of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in the 2016 US presidential election.
Protests will recur, although it is unlikely that they will reach the same scale without some specific trigger or scandal.” Andrew Smith, a senior lecturer at the University of Chichester in the United Kingdom