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:
Protesters have largely come from peripheral towns, cities, and rural areas across France and include many women and single mothers. Most of the protesters have jobs, including as secretaries, IT workers, factory workers, delivery workers, and care workers. All say their low incomes mean they cannot make ends meet at the end of the month.
The movement is predominantly against a tax system perceived as unfair and unjust, but there are numerous grievances and differences of opinion. Most want to scrap the fuel taxes, hold a review of the tax system, raise the minimum wage, and roll back Macron’s tax cuts for the wealthy and his pro-business economic program. But some also want parliament dissolved and Macron to resign.
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.”