Some 1,220 people were arrested in France on Saturday as more than a hundred thousand took to the streets—leading to a lockdown and armored vehicles pouring into Paris—as part of the “Yellow Vests” or “Gilets Jaunes” movement that initially came as a response to French President Emmanuel Macron’s attempt to raise taxes on gasoline and diesel, which critics warn would primarily impact the working- and middle-class.
The movement’s name comes from many supporters wearing the yellow high-visibility vests that all drivers in France are required to keep in their vehicles. Although Macron’s centrist administration announced last week that it was suspending fuel and electricity hikes for six months, outrage over growing inequality across the country has continued to produce massive protests.
Since the demonstrations kicked off four weeks ago, BBC News noted, “protests have also erupted over other issues, including calls for higher wages, lower taxes, better pensions, and easier university entry requirements.” While it began as backlash to Macron’s climate policy, “the movement’s core aim, to highlight the economic frustration and political distrust of poorer working families, still has widespread support.”
Outlining the movement, its supporters, and their demands, the Guardian reported Friday:
As Jacques, a teacher at a technical college and one of the group’s organizers, told FRANCE 24: “The Gilets Jaunes that you see in the streets, they’re mainly middle-class, and they’re being bled dry financially. The wealth gap is getting wider, and we’ve reached a point where there are the very rich and the very poor—and more and more people are slipping into poverty.”
Among the French, public support for the protests is around 66 percent, according to polling released Friday. High-profile figures such as author and climate activist Naomi Klein have also weighed in. On Twitter Saturday, Klein called out Macron for neoliberal policy that sought to pass on the costs of the climate crisis to the people rather than the polluting industries that have primarily fueled it.
The Intercept‘s Glenn Greenwald blasted Neera Tanden of the Center for American Progress and others for framing the protests as merely critiques of Macron’s policy to address the climate crisis—which ignores the actual impacts of the fuel tax and the movement’s broader motivations.
As the heightened tensions within France have led to some violence, precautions have increased. The Louvre Museum and Eiffel Tower, along with many shops throughout Paris, were shut down on Saturday. According to the Washington Post, “police frisked protesters Saturday at train stations around the country, confiscating everything from heavy metal petanque balls to tennis rackets—anything that could remotely be used as a weapon.”
Describing the scene in Paris during the latest round of protests, the Associated Press reported:
The Champs-Elysées, “Paris’s most famous boulevard simply reeked of tear gas. Clouds of the stuff hung in the air, burning throats but not silencing the sullen, rebellious crowds,” the AP noted. With “noses dripping snot, eyes red and watering,” demonstrators broke out into song—bellowing “The Marseillaise,” France’s national anthem.
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This post has been updated to clarify information from Glenn Greenwald’s tweets.