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YELLOW VESTS

Somber Macron hikes minimum wage in hope of calming ‘yellow vest’ rebellion

French President Emmanuel Macron gave a 13-minute speech to the nation on Monday evening in a bid to appease the yellow vest protesters. Among the measures he announced was a rise in the minimum wage and a cut in taxes for hard-up pensioners. But will it be enough?

Published: 10 December 2018 21:50 CET

Somber Macron hikes minimum wage in hope of calming 'yellow vest' rebellion

Photo: AFP

Macron gave a somber speech that was pre-recorded during the day in which he apologised to those people he may have offended with his words and said he accepted his part for the anger that has risen in the country.

“I may have given the impression that it wasn't my problem, that it wasn't my priority. I may have hurt some of you with my words,” said Macron.

Among the concrete measures he announced was a €100 a month rise in the minimum wage (SMIC) from January 2019 and a scrap on taxes and social contributions for overtime hours worked.

Macron said firms would not have to foot the bill for the increase in the minimum wage.

The minimum wage was set at 1,498 euros per month pre-tax in 2018 and 1,185 euros after tax.

He also announced that the worse-off pensioners, who had accused Macron of bleeding them dry, would see a cut in social contributions to leave them with more money each month.

The cut in taxes would benefit those whose pensions were worth less than €2,000 a month.

He also asked companies to give an end-of year bonus to their employees, that would not be subject to tax.

ANALYSIS: The revolution didn't happen but Macron and the 'yellow vests' must now get serious

“My only concern is you. Our only battle is for France,” said Macron at the end of his speech that was delivered in a humble tone, as he sought to address criticism of his style of leadership.

You can watch Macron's speech in the Tweet below in French.

Adresse à la Nation.https://t.co/HeVeWUhkVc

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) December 10, 2018

Macron did however refuse to bring back the fortune tax on the country's most wealthy, which had been the source of much anger. “To reverse would weaken us,” said Macron adding that he would continue the fight against tax evasion.

Macron abolished the old wealth tax which kicked in when assets, savings and real estate totaled more than €1.3 million and replaced it with a wealth tax that only applied to real estate, hoping it would free up cash for the wealth y to invest and create jobs.

Many gilets jaunes protesters have demanded the old tax be restored but defending his reform Macron said: “The tax existed for nearly 40 years. Did we live better during this period? The richest left and the standard of living went down,” he said.

The president opened the speech by condemning the violence that had taken place across France over recent weeks.

“No anger justifies attacking a gendarme, or a police officer,” he said adding that he had given instructions to the government to be tough on those behind the violence.

But Macron accepted that behind the violence lay “anger and indignation” and “legitimate” grievances.

“This anger is shared by many among us, by many French people,” said Macron.

“Their distress doesn't date from yesterday. We have ended up getting used to it,” he said.

“These are forty years of malaise that have come to the surface,” he added.

“Without doubt we haven't been able to provide a response that was strong or quick enough,” he said.

'Radical yellow vests won't be convinced'

After Macron's announcements the question now is whether the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) will continue their protests.

Many listened and watched Macron's speech at their road blocks on roundabouts around the country.

(AFP)

Those interviewed by French TV suggested they were not impressed and vowed to continue until Macron resigns.

The problem as The Local's columnist John Lichfield points out is that many in the movement have become radicalized and are not prepared to stop because of a certain number of measures.

“Macron went further than many had expected, especially in ordering a six per cent increase in the minimum wage,” said Lichfield.

“He tried, not entirely convincingly, to adopt a more humble tone. He may have done enough to peel off part of the support for the gilets jaunes and to end the widespread sympathy for them in the wider population.”

“The problem is that the most radical part of the movement has gone beyond the point where specific measures will satisfy them. They have convinced themselves that they are a popular revolt against the political and economic status quo.”

Even before Macron's speech more protests had been planned for Saturday in Paris. Those protests are likely to go ahead but the question will be whether or not the same number of people turn-out as in recent weeks and whether the hardcore 'rioters' who have tagged on to the movement still have their appetite for violence.

Macron, who has been in power for the past 18 months, earlier Monday held four hours of crisis talks with government ministers, parliamentary leaders, business and labour representatives and regional officials.

Macron had vowed that unlike his predecessors he would not be swayed by street protests.

But in an initial attempt to quell the revolt, the government agreed last week to cancel a planned increase in anti-pollution fuel taxes — the spark behind the “yellow vest” protests in car-dependent rural and suburban France.

But the move was seen as too little, too late by the protesters, who held a fourth round of demonstrations on Saturday to press for further concessions on reducing inequality.

The three-week-long campaign of nationwide road blockades and weekend protests in Paris and other cities, which degenerated into destruction and looting, have taken a toll on the French economy.

The central bank on Monday halved its fourth-quarter growth forecast to just 0.2 percent from 0.4 percent — far below the 0.8 percent growth needed to meet the government's full-year target of 1.7 percent.

Nationwide an estimated 136,000 people turned out for the protests at the weekend — the same number as a week earlier.

Since the start of the protests, over 4,500 people have been detained by police in France, of whom 1,700 last Saturday, police said.

Member comments

Anonymous - 11 December 2018 at 09:07 CET

So who is going to pay for all this? Well, the small business that’s all ready hammered by tax.
Anonymous - 11 December 2018 at 14:57 CET

But Macron stated quite clearly that businesses will not pay for the rise in minimum wage. It is misleading for you to suggest otherwise.
Anonymous - 11 December 2018 at 23:49 CET

I agree with you, Mike. This “Boggy” person doesn’t always know what he/she is talking about most of the time.

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Is France's 'yellow vest' movement really on its way back?

Yellow vest protests in Paris in 2019. Photo: AFP

When Priscillia Ludosky put on a yellow vest for the first time and headed out to the Champs Elysées to protest, she had no idea that nearly 300,000 people would do the same.

It was November 17th, 2018, the first 'yellow vest' protest in the capital and the birth of a mass-movement so large that its vows to overthrow French President Emmanuel Macron’s government seemed, for a moment, credible.

Nearly two years later, Macron is still president – and aiming for reelection – while the ‘yellow vest’ movement has all but disappeared from the public eye.

“It’s been a long time since I wore the yellow vest,” Priscillia Ludosky, founder and leading figure of the movement, told The Local.

She had not left the movement, but said she was less active than she had been.

“I'm less on-the-ground than I used to. The pandemic put the brakes on most things,” she said.

Despite France's rising coronavirus rates, the 'yellow vests' have declared a comeback protest on September 12th, promising to “never give up”.

? Chaque #GiletJaune sait où il doit aller le #12Septembre .

????? – ???????? – ?????? – , ???…

Et si cela ne suffit pas !!!
On ne lâchera rien !!! ✊✊✊ pic.twitter.com/sRAsVQkPSC

— ??? ?????? ?????? ?? (@GiletsJaunesFr_) August 3, 2020

But with the protests before lockdown gathering only a fraction of the numbers they once rallied, how much is there really left of the 'yellow vests'?

“The movement is much smaller, much less active, and much more divided than it was at the outset,” historian Sylvain Boulouque told The Local.

Boulouque has followed the movement from the beginning and has written the book Mensonges en gilet jaune (Lies in yellow vests), about the role social media and fake news played in fuelling the 'yellow vests' anger.

When the ‘yellow vests’ first spiralled into a national mass-movement, their rallying cry “Macron demission !” (Macron resign) was the one ringing the loudest, and it was also one of the few demands that all of the ‘yellow vests’ could unite behind.

“The movement spans all the way from the extreme-left to the extreme-right. There is no unity on the fundamental political questions,” Boulouque said.

The more time passed, the more the movement's internal divisions became clear. Today, Boulouque said, there was “a little bit of everything” left, and just keeping track of the movement had become a challenge.

“It’s so local that the demographic changes from town to town and week to week,” he said.

Among the extreme right-wing were a number of conspiracy theory believers, he said, including anti-mask activists who opposed the French government's new rules on masks.

Pro- and anti-masks was just the newest fault line dividing the 'yellow vests', Boulouque said.

“The pandemic will split them rather than reunite them,” he said.

‘Covid proved our points’

Seizing on the pandemic to re-mobilise the masses is what the still-active 'yellow vests' hope to do on September 12th.

Leading 'yellow vest' figure Jérôme Rodrigues. Photo: AFP

Jérôme Rodrigues, another ‘yellow vest’ leading figure, told Slate that the pandemic was their “best ally”.

“Covid proved our points about the degrading of the health system and the limits of the capitalist system,” Rodrigues said.

When the French government imposed a nationwide, strict lockdown in March, it was to save the hospitals in hard-hit areas such as Paris from the mounting pressure of a rapidly increasing patient flow.

The lockdown, which lasted over two months, had a crippling impact on the economy and saw the government spend billions on emergency help schemes to prevent chain bankruptcies and mass layoffs.

Despite the government's efforts to kickstart the economy, France’s unemployment rate is set to increase by 10 percent by the end of the year. Young people will be the worst affected, according to France’s national institute for statistics, Insee. Rodrigues predicted that the looming downturn would reaffirm people's faith in the 'yellow vest' movement.

“With the coming crisis, people who were doing well financially and who have never had a hard time are going to fall flat on their faces,” Rodrigues said.

'Yellow vest' leading figure Priscillia Ludosky has been participating in protests against police violence and in support of France's hospital sector the past months. Photo: AFP

'Sensationalist media'

Rodrigues became a symbol of the ‘yellow vests’ after he was hit in the eye by what he claimed to be an LBD rubber bullet fired by police (the police refute his accusation, but the authority overseeing the police has launched an investigation into the matter).

Blinded in one eye, Rodrigues incorporated one of the most jarring features of the protests: their increasingly violent character. The recurring scenes of violence that dominated the protests contributed to the ‘yellow vests’ hogging headlines for months – not just in France, but across the world.

Images of burning cars, police armed with rubber-bullet guns, violent fist-fights and black-clad protesters smashing ATMs with baseball bats shocked the world.

But the violence also dominated the media coverage of the protests, which meant what the protesters were saying got less attention.

To Ludosky, this was a big problem.

“The media won’t cover anything unless it’s sensationalist,” she said.

Ludosky authored the online petition that became the catalyst for the ‘yellow vest’ protests. In it, she wrote that the government’s proposed carbon tax was both falsely branded a green policy and was harmful to the many people who depended on their cars to get around every day.

The document went viral and gathered more than one million signatures, and the fluorescent yellow vest that all vehicles in France must be equipped with became the symbol of the masses revolting against the elites.

Ludosky said her main point was lost in the coverage. She was not an angry car-enthusiast defending her right to drive, she was saying that the tax was unfair and would impact the most on the poorest.

“The longer we protested, the more they tried to tell everyone that we don't know what we want. That we were only out there to break things,” she said.

The early days of the movement saw hundreds of 'roundabout protests' in the French provinces. Photo: AFP

'They are there'

The violence also discouraged many of the 'yellow vests' who had little experience with protesting and were shocked by the use of force on both sides.

Danielle Tartakowsky, a professor at the Paris 8 University who specialises in social movements in contemporary France, said it was important to distinguish between the ‘yellow vest’ who still turned up to protests in Paris – often young, keen and ready to go head to head with police – and the ‘yellow vests’ mobilising in less urban areas.

“In the countryside the ‘yellow vest’ movement is the same as it was at the outset,” she said.

In her new book, On est là ! (We’re here), a main ‘yellow vest’ rallying cry, she concludes just that; the movement had changed, but the ‘yellow vests’ were still present.

“That does not mean that they are ready to rally in the same ways, but it would be dangerous and delusional to say that they have disappeared,” she said.

Tartakowsky said that, while the 'yellow vests' successes could seem limited from the outside, they had pushed through important change indirectly by showing that it was possible to force through change.

“Even if they did not win on all points they showed that it was possible to win something, to make the government backpedal,” she said, referring to the carbon tax.

The camp

When the protests started, the roundabout became the main stage for the protesters who did not travel to Paris to make their discontent heard and seen in the capital.

From June 2019 until March 2020, just before the pandemic hit with full force, Séverine spent most of her free time on a local roundabout where she and some 30 other ‘yellow vests’ had set up a camp.

A teacher in Amiens, a city a couple of hours north of Paris, Séverine was an early believer that the ‘yellow vests’ would be the movement that finally could radically change a system she saw as unjust, undemocratic and unsustainable.

“I passed all my evenings, all my weekends at the camp,” she said.

The camp was a microcosm of the world they hoped to create.

“We cooked together, discussed, we really had some great moments there together,” she said.

They were all kinds of people at the camp; a waiter, a metro driver, a nursery teacher, a few retirees. An Indian student who just needed somewhere to crash for free.

“It was a very open environment,” Séverine said.

But the problems soon surfaced. The camp, like the movement, swore to a leaderless management style where no one had a final say.

“It was a mess. Obviously, we didn’t manage to make any decisions,” Séverine said.

Violence at protests became a major problem. Photo: AFP

'People are exhausted'

They split themselves into two groups. Oddly enough, the division had little to do with politics.

“It was not about left or right. We actually agreed on the fundamental issues. It was more about strong personalities and people simply not getting along,” she said.

The atmosphere soured. They argued more, discussed less. They went from 30, to 20, to about 10. Then, after the local election in March, just before the pandemic made social distancing the norm, the mayor told them to clear the camp.

Critics have long said the ‘yellow vests’ lack of leadership was their major, perhaps the decisive, default. How could they push for change when they had no idea what they wanted?

Despite having become so disillusioned with the movement that she no longer knew if she wanted to call herself a ‘yellow vest’ at all, Séverine was not sure this was their main problem.

“Demonstrating every weekend is tiring. It requires a significant commitment. I think people are exhausted,” she said.

'I was fed up'

In the months that followed the movement’s heyday in early 2019, the protests followed the same pattern as Séverine's camp.

They were increasingly sparse in numbers and the atmosphere increasingly tense and bitter.

“You're walking in a state of complete stress, afraid that someone is aiming at you. You don't hear the messages anymore,” Séverine said.

Five people have lost a hand in the protests. Twenty-five were blinded in an eye. According to government numbers, 2,500 protesters were hurt in the protests by the end of 2019, along with 1,800 police officers.

“No one could imagine that a movement could last this long without losing momentum,” Ludosky said.

“Keeping on going cost a lot to the people who got involved. It's money, time, people lost limbs, couples separated.”

Like many others, she was put off by the violence. In the end, she left her yellow vest in her car.

“I was fed up,” she said. “Every time I wore it I worried about the police controlling me.”

She was not sure if she still believed in the movement.

“It’s complicated. The presidential elections are coming up soon, crying out for Macron’s resignation doesn’t make sense anymore.”

“But the 12th will be the moment to go out on the streets. Not necessarily in Paris, but we need to show something.”

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