Yellow vests protests

The issue on which the French movement was initially focused was the projected 2019 increase in fuel taxes, particularly on diesel fuel. French President Emmanuel Macron's approval rating had dipped below 25% at the beginning of the movement. The 1979 oil crisis prompted efforts to curb petrol (gasoline) use, while taking advantage of diesel fuel availability and diesel engine efficiency. The French manufacturer Peugeot has been at the forefront of diesel technology, and from the 1980s, the French government favored this technology. A reduction in VAT taxes for corporate fleets also increased the prevalence of diesel cars in France. As the carbon tax had progressively been ramping up to meet ecological objectives, many who had chosen fossil fuel-based heating for their homes, outside of the city center where a car is required, were displeased. President Macron attempted to dispel these concerns in early November by offering special subsidies and incentives. and a failure to understand the needs of rural residents who are totally reliant on their cars. Vandalism of traffic enforcement cameras grew significantly after the yellow vest movement began. While some commentators have claimed that the movement was a backlash to policies meant to combat climate change, a communique released by the movement calls for a "real ecological policy", including fuel and kerosene taxes for ships and airplanes, but objects to policies like the gas tax that hit the poor and working class most heavily. Yellow vest symbol , the key symbol of the protests How the high-visibility yellow vest came to be the symbol and uniform for the movement is not known, and no one has claimed to be its originator. The movement originated with French motorists from rural areas who had long commutes protesting against an increase in fuel taxes, wearing the yellow vests that, under a 2008 French law, all motorists are required to keep in their vehicles and wear in the case of an emergency. The symbol has become "a unifying thread and call to arms" as yellow vests are common and inexpensive, easy to wear over any clothing, are associated with working-class industries, highly noticeable, and widely understood as a distress signal. As the movement grew to include grievances beyond fuel taxes, non-motorists in France put on yellow vests and joined the demonstrations, as did protesters in other countries with diverse (and sometimes conflicting) grievances of their own. One commentator wrote that "the uniform of this revolution is as accessible as the frustration and fury." ==Origin==

Éric Drouet and a businesswoman named Priscillia Ludosky from the Seine-et-Marne department started a petition on the change.org website in May 2018 that had reached 300,000 signatures by mid-October and close to 1 million a month later. Parallel to this petition, two men from the same Department launched a Facebook event for 17 November to "block all roads" and thus protest against an increase in fuel prices they considered excessive, stating that this increase was the result of the tax increase. The idea of using yellow jackets originally came from this group. For example, in Rouen during the Acte IX, LCI, television reporters were attacked by a group of protesters, thrown to the ground and beaten. The same day, a reporter for the local newspaper La Dépêche du Midi was threatened by yellow vest protesters in Toulouse who told her "we'll take you out of your car and rape you". International media also reported on the disproportionate violence the French police deployed against the protestors, including the use of explosive grenades and flashball weapons resulting in multiple incidents of loss of limb and sight by the protestors. , Paris, 5 January 2019 According to Stéphane Sirot, a specialist in the history of French trade unionism, the unions were hesitant to join forces with the yellow jackets because the movement included people trade unions traditionally do not represent (business owners and the self-employed) as well as people who simply did not want to negotiate. The presence of far-right elements in the movement was also off-putting to the CGT. Misleading images and information were circulated on social media concerning the protests. According to Pascal Froissart, the leaderless, horizontal aspect of the movement contributed to the dissemination of disinformation, as nobody was in charge of public relations or social media messaging. One of the goals of the yellow jackets was to obtain the right to direct initiative, in other words, the right to petition the government at any time to propose or repeal a law, amend the constitution, or remove a public official from office. The bottom-up Swiss model of government, where referendums are frequent, has been compared to the top-down French governmental system to explain the lack of a similar movement in French-speaking Switzerland. Étienne Chouard, a French economics and law teacher, and a retired dentist named , who named the RIC, were among the earliest proponents of such referendums. Several politicians included the idea in their 2017 presidential platforms. ==Timeline (first phase)==

2018 17 November: "Act I" , Landes The protests began on 17 November 2018, and attracted more than 300,000 people across France with protesters constructing barricades and blocking roads. Protests also occurred in the French overseas region of Réunion, where the situation developed into looting and riots. Schools on the island were closed for three days after protesters blocked access to roads. On 21 November, President Macron ordered the deployment of troops to the island to calm the violence. 24 November: "Act II" With the protests in Paris having raised tensions the previous week, the Interior Ministry agreed to allow a gathering on 24 November at the Champ de Mars. Yellow vest protestors briefly occupied the runway at Nantes Atlantique Airport and prevented access to Nice Côte d'Azur Airport. Vinci Autoroutes reported tollbooths were blocked on 20 major arteries all across France. It is during a strike by railway workers, in Amiens, that the yellow vests protesters first sung On est là !, a song that has since become the "hymn" of the movement. In Marseille, where demonstrations had been frequent since the 5 November collapse of a building and the evacuation of the surrounding neighborhoods, , an 80-year-old Algerian woman, was fatally wounded by shards from a police tear gas canister while trying to close her shutters. On the following Monday, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo estimated the property damages at €3–4 million ($-). The A6 motorway was again blocked north of Lyon in Villefranche-sur-Saône. In Bordeaux, after two hours of skirmishes between the police and protesters, rioters took advantage of the situation to set fires and pillage the local Apple Store. Paris experienced protests for the fourth consecutive week. Many shops were boarded up in anticipation of violence, with The Louvre, Eiffel Tower and the Paris Opera also closed. Police assembled steel fences around the Élysée Palace and deployed armored vehicles on the streets in an attempt to limit the violence. The broadcast was watched by more than 23 million people, making it the most-viewed political speech in French history. After investigation, it became apparent that the minimum wage itself would not be raised by €100 a month but that those eligible would see an increase in the activity bonus paid by the CAF. Retrospective analysis shows that the number of people aware of and eligible for this substantially-increased bonus rose dramatically as a result of the government's efforts to calm the protests. The measure cost 75% (€4.1 billion) more in 2019 than in 2018. On 11 December, after having declared a state of economic and social emergency the day before, Macron invited representatives of the French banks to the Elysée to announce that the banks had agreed to freeze their prices in 2019 and to permanently limit incident-related fees to €25 a month ($/month) for people in extreme financial difficulty, as determined by the Bank of France. 15 December: "Act V" In the wake of the 2018 Strasbourg attack, the government asked protesters to stay off the streets. According to the Paris prefecture estimates, there were 8,000 police for 2,200 demonstrators in Paris. Conflict arose in Bordeaux, Toulouse, Marseille, Lyon and the capital. Priscillia Ludosky, in front of the Paris Opera, said over megaphone: "We are exhausted by the colossal pressure of taxation that takes away the energy of our country, of our entrepreneurs, of our artisans, of our small businesses, of our creators and of our workers, while a small elite constantly dodges taxes." 22 December: "Act VI" Demonstrations continued throughout the country. The Ministry of the Interior announced a participation figure almost half that of the previous week with 38,600 demonstrators throughout France, including 2,000 in Paris according to the Prefecture of Police. Versailles Palace was preventively closed for the day. Éric Drouet, the 33-year-old truck driver who is one of the most followed yellow jackets on Facebook, was arrested for organizing an undeclared demonstration and participating in a violent assembly. He had called on Facebook for demonstrators to meet at Versailles but then revised the call to Montmartre after it had been announced that Versailles would be closed. Authorities say that Drouet was carrying a truncheon and would be summoned in court where they would seek to prevent him from coming to Paris. Protesters blocked border traffic to Switzerland at Cluse-et-Mijoux. They were dispersed after one hour by police. Similar operations were conducted at the Spanish, Italian, German, and Belgian borders. Overall, at least 220 people were arrested in the country, including 142 in Paris. A motorist was killed on 21 December when his car hit a truck that was stopped at a blockade in Perpignan, the tenth fatality overall. In Paris, the protesters demonstrated in front of the headquarters of BFM-TV, Libération and France Télévisions. Victor Glad suggests that the same crisis of representation motivating the citizens' initiative referendums is also behind the gilets jaunes criticism of the traditional media. 2019 5 January: "Act VIII" According to the French Ministry of the Interior, the first demonstrations of 2019 brought 50,000 people into the streets across France. A door to Rennes' city hall was damaged, while government Spokesman Benjamin Griveaux was evacuated from his office on Rue de Grenelle (Paris) through the garden, after rioters hijacked a forklift to break down the door to the Ministry. There were also skirmishes in Bordeaux, Nantes, Caen & Rennes. Women's role, both in defining the movement's objectives and in communicating at roundabouts, is—for editorialist Pierre Rimbert—a reflection of the fact that women make up the majority of workers in "intermediary professions" but are three times more likely to be classed as "employees" than men according to an INSEE study in 2017. Women organized separate demonstrations in Paris, Toulouse and Caen. According to one of the organizers, the goal was to have a "channel of communication other than violence". A civil servant and former light-heavyweight boxing champion was filmed fighting with two gendarmes on a footbridge about one of the gendarmes' use of force. One month later the civil servant was sentenced to serve one year of sleeping in jail, which allowed him to continue to work. The interior minister announced that over 60% of the traffic enforcement cameras in the country had been vandalized. This was up from estimates of 50% in early December. 12 January: "Act IX" Attendance increased in the ninth straight weekend of protests, with at least 84,000 demonstrating on 12 January for economic reform across France, including 8,000 in Paris, 6,000 in Bourges, 6,000 in Bordeaux, and 2,000 in Strasbourg. Government officials deployed 80,000 security forces nationwide, vowing "zero tolerance" for violence. Small groups of people left the designated protest route and threw projectiles at police. The explosions occurred early on 12 January, This weekly protest is the first to happen after the launch of the "Great National Debate" by President Emmanuel Macron. 26 January: "Act XI" Nationwide demonstrations continued for an eleventh straight week on Saturday, 26 January. The French interior ministry estimated crowds of 69,000 across the country, and local police estimated 4,000 in Paris. A high-profile member of the protest movement, Jérôme Rodrigues, was maimed after being shot in the face by police with a flash-ball launcher, resulting in the loss of his right eye. Dozens of people have been similarly injured during the course of the yellow vests protests. The following day, an estimated 10,000 people marched in Paris in a foulards rouges ("red scarves") counter-protest in opposition to the yellow vests. On Saturday, 2 February, between 10,000 and 13,800 people protested in Paris, with thousands more in Tours, Valence, Marseille, Bordeaux, Toulouse, and other French cities. According to the préfecture, 1850 people demonstrated in downtown Tours, which had likewise been boarded up. The demonstrations of "Act XII" focused on denouncing the number of serious injuries caused by police violence during anti-government demonstrations. According to the French government, around 2,000 civilians were injured in protests between November 2018 and February 2019, including four serious eye injuries. and allow local police to establish blacklists of people not allowed to participate in street protests. The man leading the insults against the philosopher on published video-recordings of the event was detained for questioning on Tuesday on charges of hate speech. Police indicated he was close to the Salafi movement in 2014. 3 March: "The True Debate" 16 March: "Act XVIII" Leaders of the movement stated on 8 March 2019 that a protest (which had already been dubbed "The Ultimatum") was planned for the following weekend of 16 March. 200 people were taken into custody in Paris after the Champs-Elysées was again targeted by rioters. Luxury stores including Fouquet's, Hugo Boss and Xiaomi were among the 80 businesses damaged, pillaged or set ablaze. Anne Hidalgo, the Mayor of Paris, called upon the government to do something about the political and social fracture. In response, the French government announced it would deploy the military, in addition to extra police and gendarmery forces. The soldiers were drafted from Operation Sentinelle, active since the January 2015 terror attacks in Paris. 7 September: "Act XLIII" New protests were held in cities, including Montpellier, Rouen and Strasbourg. 21 September: "Act XLV" A new wave of yellow vest protests was initiated in Paris for the 45th consecutive week. Over a hundred demonstrators were taken into custody after they attempted to enter Avenue Champs-Elysees by force. 2020 14 March: "Act LXX" People participated in the protests of 14 March 2020 in spite of the imminent COVID-19 national lockdown, but leaders of the movement, like Maxime Nicolle and Jérôme Rodrigues, called on staying safe at home. The lockdown effectively put an end to the weekly protests. ==Fatalities and injuries==

According to an AA report published on 3 May 2019, the French Mediapart documented 11 fatalities, with five individuals losing their hands as a result of police use of grenades, and 23 people losing their eyesight. By late December 2018, over 1,843 protesters and 1,048 police had been injured. ==Impact==

Adama Committee and Nuit Debout On 29 November, François Ruffin, the founder of left-wing Fakir magazine, organized a mobilizing meeting with various French left-wing movements, at which Frédéric Lordon spoke of the Yellow Vests, saying "If the Nuitdeboutistes who got all wound up into deforestation and anti-specist commissions can't get moving when this happens, then they are the lowest of the low". CEO Xavier Huillard said the fourth quarter loss "wiped out the increase in traffic of the first 10 months". Tourism The riots led to a decline in the number of tourists visiting Paris in 2019, with hotel owners reporting fewer bookings in the run-up to the summer tourist season. France reported the largest decreases in international tourist activity in Europe, compared to countries such as the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain and Germany. Cultural impact A video of comedian Anne-Sophie Bajon, known as La Bajon, in the role of Emmanuel Macron's lawyer wearing a yellow vest, has been seen several million times on social networks. Dancer Nadia Vadori-Gauthier improvised choreography in the street during demonstrations with the fumes of the various gases and fires of cars. On 15 December 2018, on the sidelines of the demonstration on the Champs-Élysées, Deborah De Robertis organized a demonstration in which five women appear topless in front of the French police, with a costume reminiscent of the French allegory for Liberty Marianne. A video of a performance by yellow vests protesters at a roundabout of Michel Fugain's 1975 hit song Les Gentils, Les Méchants ("The Good Ones, The Evil Ones") received over 800,000 views online. A restaurant in Nîmes created a yellow vests-inspired hamburger, served on a bright yellow bun, with a circular "roundabout" beef patty, onions from the vegetable plot of the Élysée Palace, "tear gas" pepper sauce, and "CRS sauce" made of cream, ricotta, and Saint Môret cheese (a reference to the French riot police, the Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité). ==Reactions and counter-protest==

In late November 2018, polls showed that the movement had widespread support in France (ranging from 73 Comparisons Adam Gopnik writes that gilets jaunes can be viewed as part of a series of French street protests stretching back to at least the strikes of 1995. Citing historian Herrick Chapman, he suggests General de Gaulle's centralization of power when creating the French Fifth Republic was so excessive that it made street protests the only "dynamic alternative to government policy". the Five Star Movement in Italy, The Gilets noirs movement arose partly in response to perceived racist, anti-immigrant, and pro-fascist sentiment among the Gilets jaunes. == Protests outside France ==

, United Kingdom The largest "yellow vest" protest outside France was held in Taipei with over 10,000 demonstrating on 19 December. Their principal concern was tax justice. is against the federal Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, and is pro-petrochemical-pipeline. Beginning in late December 2018, various yellow-vest-wearing protest movements have been seen across the country. This protest movement, known as Yellow Vests Canada, does not follow the same goals as the French movement. Protests have had occasional outbreaks of violence. Groups of various protesters wearing yellow vests have taken place in at least a 30 cities and towns across Canada as of January 2019. An early yellow vest protest, which included "hundreds of vehicles", was held in Medicine Hat, Alberta, organized by Tamara Lich, who was later arrested for alleged mischief pertaining to the 2022 convoy protest in Ottawa. A controversial event in February 2019 known as the "United We Roll" truck convoy attracted several Yellow Vest participants to the grounds of Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Prominent political officials such as federal Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer and People's Party leader Maxime Bernier addressed the crowd. Scheer and Bernier drew criticism for appearing at the United We Roll event when it was revealed that alt-right personality Faith Goldy, formerly of controversial Internet outlet Rebel Media, was also in attendance and made a presentation to the participants, several of whom carried signs and chanted slogans accusing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of "treason" and demanding that Canada withdraw from the non-binding United Nations Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM). Liberal Minister of Natural Resources Amarjeet Sohi and NDP MP Nathan Cullen were among the members of Parliament who expressed concern that the presence of mainstream political leaders at the rally was lending legitimacy to the movement. and several people were injured. According to the Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN), there is a direct link between the Yellow vests protesters in Canada and 2022 Canada convoy protests, also known as the Freedom Convoy 2022. Associates of the Yellow vest protests in Canada also organized the much smaller 2019 convoy "United We Roll" (UWR) convoy. • Bulgaria: Anti-government protesters in Bulgaria began wearing high-visibility vests from 16 November. • Egypt: In December 2018, a temporary one-month restriction on the sale of yellow reflective vests was introduced in an attempt to prevent the incidence of protests closely mimicking the then-ongoing yellow vest protests in France. In December 2018, hundreds attended yellow vests protests in the centre of Dublin against 'the perceived failures of the Government', Galway, Limerick, Wicklow, Waterford and Donegal. On 16 November and 14 December 2019, and on 12 September 2020, Yellow Vest Ireland participated in demonstrations in Dublin outside the Dáil, in opposition to proposed anti-hate speech legislation and COVID lockdowns. By mid-to-late 2020, the group was protesting against COVID-19 prevention measures taken by the Irish government. • Israel: Economic uncertainty and corruption led to a yellow vest rally at the Azrieli Centre Mall in Tel Aviv on 14 December. • Russia: On 23 December 2018, Blue Bucket demonstrators at Sokolniki Park wore yellow vests at a rally against parking fee increases in Moscow. • Serbia: A civil rights organization Združena akcija Krov nad glavom started using yellow vests in its protests to oppose the eviction of a resident in the Mirijevo district of Belgrade and to show solidarity and common cause with French Yellow vest movement. Parallel to that, on 4 December, Boško Obradović, the leader of the far-right Dveri party, called for demonstrations about high fuel prices in Serbia on 8 December. • Spain: During the taxi driver strike of January in Madrid and Barcelona, many protesters used yellow vests. • Taiwan: The Tax and Legal Reform League, demonstrating for tax justice since December 2016, organized a yellow vests march on 19 December. • Tunisia: A derivative group, the gilets rouges ("red vests"), emerged on Facebook, calling for protests against the economic situation in the country. • United Kingdom: Pro-Brexit groups involved in small-scale protests in London and other UK cities have worn yellow vests. • United States: In Vermont, a group called "No Carbon Tax Vermont" held a rally at the Vermont Statehouse on 9 January 2019. ==Notable members==

• Étienne Chouard • Laëtitia Dewalle • Priscillia Ludosky ==See also==