What, and who, are France’s “gilets jaunes”?

By S.P. | PARIS

IMAGES OF burning barricades, riot police and tear gas on the Champs-Elysées in Paris have brought France’s gilets jaunes (“yellow vests”) to the world’s attention. The name refers to the high-visibility jackets that these protesters have adopted as a symbol of their complaint. French law requires all motorists to carry these jackets in the car. The movement began earlier this month as a protest against the rising price of fuel, but has taken on a wider role, and the gilets jaunes are now seen as symbols of the growing popular discontent with President Emmanuel Macron.

The yellow-vest protest began when rising world oil prices, combined with an increase this year of 7.6 cents per litre in taxes on diesel, pushed prices at the pump up to record highs. Commuters in France’s big cities are well served by good metro systems and bus routes; but elsewhere, many people drive long distances to get to work. The government says that the higher tax rate, together with an increase of another 6.5 cents a litre planned for early next year, is designed over time to align diesel and petrol prices as part of an effort to reduce diesel consumption and thereby curb pollution. “I’d prefer to tax fuel than work,” Mr Macron explained. “Those who complain about higher fuel prices also demand action against air pollution because their children get sick.”

Those who live far from the bike-share schemes and Uber networks of France’s big cities, however, do not buy the government’s green argument. They think that this tax is a punishment for families struggling to make ends meet, and proof of the president’s disdain towards ordinary working people. Some 280,000 yellow vests took part in a first day of protest on November 17th, blocking roundabouts and motorway toll booths nationwide. Less than half that number took to the streets on November 24th, when a protest in Paris took a particularly violent turn after troublemakers infiltrated the event. The gilets jaunes movement, which emerged through social media and embraces lots of dramatic revolutionary imagery, has tapped into anger at the perception that Mr Macron governs for the better-off, Paris-based elite.

How long the protest movement can last depends partly on whether it can survive an attempted mutation into a more organised movement. The gilets jaunes are currently structureless and leaderless, which is both their strength but also a potential weakness. Internal rivalries and conflicting objectives could yet split the movement, as could a loss of public support if the movement radicalises. Unlike union-led demonstrations, the amorphous nature of the gilets jaunes protests also makes it more difficult for the government to negotiate with them. Mr Macron’s challenge will be to defend the principles of his eco-tax, as well as his image as a determined leader who will not cave in to protests on the streets as so many of his predecessors have done, while overcoming the perception that he is deaf to the concerns of ordinary folk.