Over the course of the past four weeks, serious protests have been mounting in France that have lead to destruction of property, desecration of monuments, and even violence. These protests have had drastic consequences on the French economy, and have kept political action in France in a deadlocked state. What ultimately brought about this chaos was French President Macron’s proposal to raise the fuel tax, which proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back, unveiling a slew of other issues within French society. Deemed the “Yellow Vest protests” (gilets jaunes), the demonstrators stand united on both sides of the political spectrum, united under a shared agenda for an oust of Macron. While the protests have grown immensely in size over the course of the past few weeks, attaining estimated numbers reflecting 280,000+ demonstrators, the core group that is representative of the movement come from lower class, rural backgrounds that are highly dependent on their vehicle for work.
While the aggregate of Europe is known to have higher turnout and greater organization in civil unrest than their US counterparts in recent history, this batch of protests by the French maintain unique kindling that puts to question whether this is just another instance of civil disobedience in an effort to maintain certain European liberties, or if there are deeper implications at play here.
For starters, many French citizens no longer feel that Macron reflects their interests. Sentiment has developed over the past few months among more than a few French that identify Macron as a rent-seeking elitist that seeks to profit at the expense of his own people. With French citizens recently polling Macron at a 23% approval rating, people feel distrust in his ability to lead the nation.
In addition to a lack of Macron’s ability to relate to his citizens, the fervor behind the demonstrations have given rise to a laundry list of additional demands that many protestors are looking to see met by the government. These include improved standards of living, rise in minimum wage, an end to unpopular austerity measures, and government accountability to the working and middle classes. Despite recent concessions on a few counts by Macron in an effort to pacify the protests, the demonstrations still roar on uninhibited.
With the movement having originated and gained/maintained traction on social media, there’s no telling when the resolution might be sought, given the decentralization of the movement. With these protests bleeding into neighboring countries and with certain groups looking at the possibility of a French exit from the European Union, there’s no telling what future developments have in store. What I do know is that if government administrators want to refrain from continually hemorrhaging money from economic standstill, they had better cover all of their bases and act according to the nation’s best interests.
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