The yellow jackets are a reminder Emmanuel Macron rules only one version of France
Last year's demonstrations against his labour law reform had already tested his presidency (he responded by calling the protesters "slackers", which didn't exactly go down well). Fast forward 12 months, a bodyguard scandal, plummeting approval ratings, three ministers' resignations, to 17 November 2018: the day the French on low and middle incomes said "enough".
For the past two weeks, French people all over the country have been blocking roads, shopping centres and highway tolls in protest against the rise of the fuel tax decided by Macron's government. This tax, they say, is the last straw in a series of unjust measures that always hit low-earning workers, who feel they are living from paycheck to paycheck. They call themselves "yellow vests" (gilets jaunes in French), in reference to the fluorescent yellow security jackets, a mandatory item in all cars since 2008 in France. The protestors are using it as a symbol for the "France des ronds-points", or the France of the roundabouts: the people of the rural and "peripheral" towns, where cars are necessary to go anywhere.
According to the French Interior ministry, 287,000 protestors wore the yellow vest on the first day of the protest, on 17 November. On the second weekend of the movement, 24-25 November, about 100,000 were blocking roads in 160 different actions on the French territory. It's a lesser number, but the movement hasn't wound down. Rather, it has spread out into various groups. In many small towns, yellow vests "filtering blocades" have slowed down traffic every day since the start. About 8,000 people walked to the Champs-Elysées in Paris last Saturday and it quickly turned into violent riots where rocks (on the yellow vests' side) and teargas (on the police's side) were exchanged.
Comment: Paul Taylor at Politico comments that Macron has been blindsided by the widespread grass-roots reaction to his policies; responding limply by vowing to have a more 'inclusive' government while refusing to change his reform course or abandon carbon taxes: When the French decide they have had enough, they take action...Macron might want to reflect on the fates of some of his predecessors.
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