the first Demonstration of his life, he was all alone. It was the 17. November 2018, he had a yellow vest over, and on the roundabout on the outskirts provided. As The Only One. As Saïd Iftene in the evening on the Internet, saw the pictures from the whole of France, he knew that 300’000 people on Saturday had done the same as he is.
they had gathered in the rotors of the Republic, to say no. No to the increase in the gasoline tax, so off we went. This results in a ‘ no ’to the President, a” no ” to the System quickly became more. A day later, on Sunday, were a good 200 people in a yellow vest to Iftenes centrifugal. This weekend, for a time, he says now, a year later, she was “magically” started for him.
A wet day in November 2019 in Bordeaux, Iftene ordered in the train station restaurant for a hot chocolate. There are only a few days left until the first birthday of the yellow West-movement, the Iftene “my family”. He prepares a lot for the family. On Saturday he will be at the big demo in Bordeaux a speech, he wants to talk about it, “that we must continue to stand together”. On Sunday, he started to put back on the gyro, at all.
“Through the Internet, social injustices to be cruel to be visible. This can lead to revolt.” the Emmanuel Macron , President
The Meeting with Iftene is the third. The first is a random encounter on may 24, was. November 2018, a week after the beginning of the movement. Early in the morning in Paris, right next to the arc de Triomphe. Iftene stand a little cold on the pavement, he had spent the night in the car. To the fifth, you come to the second big demonstration of the “gilets jaunes” to connect.
On the 26. October 2019 demonstrated again vest thousands in yellow, as here, on the Place de la République. Photo: Joris van Gennip (laif)
this Saturday, Iftene built for the first Time in his life, a barricade and lit it. How was that? “I was scared,” he says today. At the time he was 18 years old, soon he will be 20. His beard, the facial features grew scanty, soft, but in the past twelve months, he had become a “grown up,” says Iftene. “In the past, I followed my impulses, due to the yellow West, I started to think.”
What remained of the insurgency, the causes of which were known to all and yet no one saw?
“That is today’s France and torn. On the one hand, the France of the cities, on the other hand, the France that we call “peripheral”. This is the France of the periphery of the basic infrastructure, public transport, crèches, cultural events is often lacking.” It analysed Emmanuel Macron, in his book, “Revolution”, which he applied in 2017 for the presidency. “Through the Internet,” said Macron, “and can now see everything and compare. The social injustices are so cruelly visible. This can nourish frustrations, Yes to the revolt lead.”
caught unawares President
The “gilets jaunes” cashed in, what the candidate promised. But as the Frustrated began in fact, the uprising that seemed to be the President of his own prophecy by surprise.
Never before has a non-organized movement in France, the fifth Republic so long as the “gilets jaunes”. And even if many of them will not get your vest out today, the anger has not disappeared. And people like Iftene it is not. “I already knew before, that I’m in the Shit,” he says. “I just didn’t know my neighbors as well.”
The second Meeting with Iftene is on his roundabout in the small town of Castillon-la-Bataille, in the middle of December 2018. 24. be Iftene and his new friends stop here Christmas celebrations and leg of lamb to eat and eighties Hits, “because the Older of us dancing to like”. From the roundabout, look out vine to wine. Here the world begins famous growing region of Saint-Emilion, and here are the half of those who are here, the broken back brought has.
“The movement had no great thinker, and did not want to be the leader. But you had a safe instinct.”
Iftene makes training to be a waiter in one of the tourist restaurants in Saint-Emilion. Every day he travels 80 kilometres on his scooter back and forth. He lives with his three small brothers with his parents, the mother a housewife, the father is unemployed. The six of you try to come up with 2000 Euro in the month to make ends meet. If the petrol is more expensive, feel Iftenes family immediately.
In France, it remained the warning color, conspicuous, a yellow thread that runs through society and the media. It is the color of a motion, which is due to their heterogeneity and large – weak.
12. January. On the Boulevard Saint-Germain, people in yellow vests, then police officers running down the sidewalk. The Senate is just around the corner, one of the objectives of the protest . The strategy of the yellow West: demonstrations not sign up, in small groups, on-the-go to be the West, depending on the security situation on and off. Nearly 100’000 demonstrators, and 80’000 police officers are to this day in the whole of France on the road. Like any of the previous yellow West-Saturdays, the officials put grenades, Tear gas and hard rubber bullets.
“it was a massacre”
Iftene says today, that he dared after his first and only Paris Demo-experience in the capital. “It was a massacre,” he says. How many other yellow the West, he also insists that the movement in the core was a pacifist. The hardness of the police met unprepared for the protesters. The protests made no less brutal. In the beginning of December, set fire to yellow the West, in Puy-en-Velay, in the case of the Paris Prefecture, when people worked in the building.
The police is just as much a presence as the protesters. Photo: Joris van Gennip (laif)
by the end of March, the police cleared the camp of the “gilets jaunes” to Iftenes home gyro in Castillon twice. A third Time, you don’t want to build your hut new. Iftenes Protest has shifted. Some of his supporters now prefer to stay at home. Iftene begins to drive every Saturday to Demonstrate to Bordeaux. He rises to in the protest of the hierarchy, belongs to soon to those who help organise the protests.
In their refusal to politically set, similar to the yellow West, often to the person you hate the most: Macron. The President, his opponent also does not want to be neither to the left nor to the right. Macron power politics with the resources of a market researcher: the citizens question fully, what you want. And if the answers appear to be inconclusive, provide. The continuous survey also want the yellow West, only you want to endure anyone that represents you.
If you ask Iftene, what would he change if he could, he sounds like a Communist. The state should ensure that basic foods are cheaper. He should determine the level of petrol, electricity and gas prices. However, with the Label “the left” he can’t do anything. “I just have my own Beliefs, and other Yellow jackets may have other Beliefs.” He has joined a movement that rejects the prevailing state of things radically. And at the same time take no responsibility for what might come next.
Easy and clever
you travel through France, sometimes on the road, the edge of the wood pallets, from which the yellow vests have their shelters put together. The movement had no great thinker, and did not want to be the leader. But you had a safe instinct. The gyro as a gathering place, the yellow vest as a sign of recognition. Both were easy and smart. Everything you needed, the “gilets jaunes” connect was found in the glove compartment.
With the yellow vest is to protect citizens in the event of an accident. Now you moved to the West, because they believed that the state refused to grant them this protection. Quickly the West to the analog status message were. The people wrote their monthly wage on the back of your claim. There were no Slogans that should apply to all, the vest is individualized to the anger, exactly.
“Crushing separation”
And then the gyro. The ecology Professor Daniel Cohen is called as the roots of the yellow West-movement, financial uncertainty and, as a “lower factor”, a “crushing social isolation”. Who can imagine nothing underneath, the pretty inner cities behind and go to where people are shopping, the can’t afford the specialty shops in the city centre. The huge super markets and commercial areas, which are organized at each exit around the roundabout.
in addition to this plastic world, the “gilets jaunes have furnished” in. Where living together is not actually provided, where each is travelling alone in the car, the big shopping for the week, repacking and then re-drives, you have crickets started to drink and to dance. Iftene likes to tell of the loving couple that has learned on his gyro know. Since a few months, they live together. Next summer they want to get married: “Magical.”
The next Saturday, the anniversary will be big, believes Iftene. However, even if the big Comeback fails, Iftene, the vest is wearing “always in the heart” – and henceforth, in civil demonstrate. As the “angry citizens, like all the others”.
Created: 13.11.2019, 17:43 PM
