Gilets jaunes protests in France to continue despite fuel tax U-turn
France’s gilets jaunes (yellow vests) have vowed to continue their high-profile protest campaign after forcing the French government into a U-turn on a controversial rise in fuel tax.
The movement behind three weeks of increasingly violent protests across the country declared it wanted more concessions from France’s leaders and would not accept “crumbs”.
Although the protests were sparked by the planned rise in fuel taxes next month, the gilets jaunes movement has grown to encompass wider anger and frustration against the political elite in Paris in general and the president, Emmanuel Macron, and his government in particular.
On Tuesday, the prime minister, Édouard Philippe, bowed to pressure from the street and announced the increases were being suspended for six months. He also announced an immediate freeze on gas and electricity prices, but warned further violence would not be tolerated.
Philippe’s announcement came after he met cabinet ministers on Tuesday morning to agree a response to a weekend of rioting, looting and destruction in Paris by an element of the gilets jaunes movement.
Macron had repeatedly vowed not to give in to the unrest, but has been forced to reconsider after some of the worst street violence in Paris in half a century.
“Thousands of French have expressed their anger,” Philippe said in a televised statement. “This anger goes back a long way and has often remained silent. Today it’s being expressed with force and in a collective way.
“One would have to be deaf and blind not to see or hear this. I hear this anger and I have understood its basis, its force and its seriousness. It is the anger of the French who work and work hard, but still have difficulty making ends meet, who find their backs against the wall. They have a sense of profound injustice at not being able to live a dignified life when they are working.
“If events of the last days have shown anything, it is that the French do not want any more taxes or charges. No tax merits putting in danger national unity.”
The measures were dismissed as insufficient by protesters and threatened to inflame an already volatile situation that resulted in cars and buildings being torched, iron railings being pulled down at the Tuileries Gardens and the looting of luxury goods stores around the Champs Élysées and Arc de Triomphe on Saturday. The gilets jaunes have called for a further protest in Paris this Saturday.
Philippe said the right and freedom to demonstrate was “fundamental in France”, but added: “We will not accept the violence we saw last weekend. If there is a new day of mobilisation, it must be declared [registered with police in advance] and happen calmly.”
The interior minister, Christophe Castaner, said 65,000 police officers and gendarmes were drafted in to deal with protests across France last Saturday and more would be mobilised to deal with demonstrations this weekend. In an appeal to peaceful protesters, he said: “I’m asking the reasonable gilets jaunes to distance themselves from the extremes and not to gather in Paris next Saturday.”
On Monday, Macron held an emergency meeting at the Élysée Palace to deal with the political and social crisis, the most serious since he was elected on a centrist, reforming programme in May 2017.
Stanislas Guerini, the leader of Macron’s La République En Marche parliamentary group, told French radio: “While there’s a debate, we stop writing, have a pause … there has to be a pause so the debate can happen.”
A meeting between Philippe and gilets jaunes representatives scheduled forTuesday afternoon was cancelled after the unofficial representatives were allegedly threatened and disowned by other protesters.
The movement, which has no central organisation or leaders, has broadened its demands to include Macron’s resignation and the dissolution of the French parliament. Benjamin Cauchy, a gilets jaunes spokesperson, said: “The French are not sparrows and don’t want the crumbs the government is giving them. They want the baguette.”
The movement’s demands included a redistribution of wealth as well as rises in salaries, pensions, social security payments and the minimum wage. Cauchy said the dialogue between the government and protesters did not have to be face to face.
“This is the 21st century and dialogue can happen by social networks and the media even without a meeting. This started with ecological transition but what France wants is political transition,” he said, adding that protests should be “pacifist”.
Macron has postponed a two-day visit to Serbia this week to deal with the crisis. Around France, the protests continued as demonstrators in high visibility fluorescent jackets took over a motorway toll booth near the southern city of Aubagne, letting vehicles pass for free. Students protesting against changes to education blocked about 100 schools around the country, according to the education ministry.
The football match between Paris Saint-Germain and Montpellier, scheduled for Saturday, was postponed after police said they could not guarantee security at the same time as protests.
Police have arrested 378 people. Officers said many were men aged between 30 and 40 from outside Paris who had come to fight police.