France experienced the fourth Saturday with the large-scale demonstrations of the Gilet jaunes. The themes of the yellow West is money, and Not to be. For the first Time, it seemed so, as could failure the President of Macron.
report of Nadia Pantel , Paris Nadia Pantel
Nadia Pantel was born in Hamburg and studied in the South, in the East and still further East, history and literature. She is working since October 2012 in the süddeutsche Zeitung, for 2018 as a correspondent in Paris.
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The closer this Saturday, the more you had in Paris the feeling of a hostile Takeover of the city was imminent. 35 Metro-stations locked, 15 bus lines suspended, the Louvre, Eiffel tower, Galeries Lafayette is closed and in a Radius of two kilometers around the Élysée Palace, the luxury of boarded up boutiques in their showcase.
On the Morning of the announced Apocalypse looks like it first, rather than the city, celebrate a car-free weekend. It is so quiet like never. However, the individual groups of people in yellow safety vests to remind you that today is about something else. France experienced the fourth Saturday of large-scale demonstrations of the Gilets jaunes, the movement of the so-called yellow the West.
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“want us to go back to the country and our shut up.” “Exactly. Work, pay taxes and be quiet.” Two friends who have travelled from Orléans to demonstrate, you must provide, prior to the Tuileries, cursing her goggles. You’ve Packed this morning in the backpack, to protect themselves from tear gas. “If you want to protect yourself, then you stay home,” says the policeman, your bags are searched.
to the arc de Triomphe, one of the centers of protest, to be running one from here, still a good 40 minutes, but already the people begin checks. Until the afternoon in Paris up to 651 protesters on a provisional basis. Because in their backpacks items can be found that appear to the officials to be dangerous.
8000 police officers in the capital, the scenes of the last week-end repeat. Protesters in yellow vests, had destroyed the exhibition in the arc de Triomphe, whole streets of desolate, cars, Bank branches and residential houses burnt down and shops looted. A couple of hours it had worked, as the police have lost all control over the Situation. You could say that the riot of the first of December was a black Saturday for the Yellow jackets. However, one could also argue, it was her first success. As a reaction to the violence, the government took back the controversial Eco-tax on petrol and Diesel, which had brought the wave of protest rolling.
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yellow fever in France
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“I have the impression that the policy only takes violence seriously,”
Alain, just wants to say his first name, stands in a small side street, 500 metres from the arc de Triomphe, and distributes respiratory protection masks. In the distance you can hear the explosions of the tear gas grenades. With a peaceful Demonstration the least, which was not expected. “I don’t want to ruin it,” says Betbaba Alain, “but the policy is only violence really seriously.” Alain has just turned 19 years old, he still lives at home, his mother is alone with him, he works in a crematorium, you as a nurse. “If we have paid for rent and food, we are left with at the end of the month, nothing more” – an old woman next to Alain nods in agreement.
The major themes of the yellow vests were all the same: money, and Not. It is a movement of people working and yet only with difficulty to make ends meet. Often it seems as though all the people were surprised in their high-visibility vests that your anger is a correct movement. This past Saturday was minted in Paris in front of all things of riot and destruction, a week later, the mood exuberant, relaxed. Have you won now? After all, the government has taken the control back. Alain shakes his head: “We have not won, we know now that we are many. In these four weeks on the road, I think we have become much more self-confident.”
“Macron has radicalised me”
The Numbers of participants in the yellow West-protests. 125 000 demonstrators, the interior Ministry counted on Saturday in the whole of France, 10,000 of them in Paris. At the launch three weeks ago, they were still nearly 300 000. Nevertheless, these protests have had the effect of significantly more than the redemption of a tax. You have shown how large parts of the country left to feel. The most that a safety vest over it, live in the suburbs and in rural areas, they belong to the lower middle class. Your opinion doesn’t count in Paris, is normally too much. Now, it is managed almost a whole month to dominate all the debates. And for the first Time, it seemed so, as France’s former success President Emmanuel Macron could fail.
“Macron has radicalised me”, written with a Sharpie on the West back. It is one of the more harmless Macron-abuse. Still, over half of the French indicates that she has sympathies for the Yellow jackets. This sympathy is directly related to the antipathy against Macron. He unites many French people on the worst way: you can rant and rave at him.
Sylvia came with her husband from Reims to fight “for more purchasing power”, she says. It has become difficult to the demonstrations of the yellow West, to find people who want to give with your full name Interviews. Many here trust the media, nor its President, Macron. “You know how much the spends on his hair? And for his swimming pool? And his new porcelain? The numbers all we have! This is not normal!” Sylvia has chosen in 2017, Marine Le Pen, not Macron. Whether Le Pen would cost the citizens less? “After all, she is not so arrogant,” says Sylvia.
Benefits the radical right-wing politician Le Pen’s of this Protest?
The right-wing Le Pen since the beginning of the movement as a potential Profiteer of the yellow rage. Therefore, many Left-wing and Liberal to watch the Yellow jackets with concern, even if they are supported by the Left Jean-Luc Mélenchon. But a new survey conducted by the opinion research Institute Elabe shows that the fight against Macron of the political Opposition benefits hardly even Le Pen is not. 24 per cent of French people have a positive image of you, in the past four weeks has risen only one percentage point.
The most popular politician? Resigned as Minister for the environment, Nicolas Hulot, 48 percent of French voters see him positively. And so it is not surprising, what was in Paris this Saturday, the numerically much more significant Demo: The March for the climate. 25 000 persons were on Saturday alone in Paris for a stronger environmental policy, on the road. On one of the front-Banner read: “we Convert the System, not the climate”. Behind the lettering were people in yellow high-visibility vest.
editors ‘ note: The number of participants in the demonstrations in France, has been adapted on a Sunday morning, after the Ministry of the interior has published on Twitter a new set of Numbers.