The reason France has more protests than Germany or Britain
ANALYSIS BY ANNE BAGAMERY
ABOUT 4 HOURS AGO
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A man yells as two police in helmets try to apprehend him
PHOTO French riot police apprehend a man in a street near Saint Lazare train station during a national day of protest.
REUTERS: PIROSCHKA VAN DE WOUW
The December holiday season is the traditional time of protest in France, and this year has been no exception, with the "gilets jaunes," or yellow vests, showing no signs of packing in their five-week-old popular uprising against economic inequality.
Despite the fact that President Emmanuel Macron has offered an estimated 8 to 10 billion euros' worth of tax cuts and benefit increases to address some concerns and hopefully restore public order, thousands poured into the streets of Paris on Saturday and small ad-hoc protests continue to crop up on street corners and motorway exchanges throughout the country.
But while some commentators lump the gilets jaunes in with the populist movements that are sweeping through Europe from Britain to Italy, experts in populism see a different story — one that has been repeating itself for more than 300 years and is part of the founding mythology of modern-day France.
"You use the toolbox you've got," says Catherine Fieschi, director of Counterpoint, a research consultancy based in London. "In France, there is a deep tradition of revolutionary uprising, so that's the tool the French reach for when they get angry. You saw it in 1789, in 1871, in May 1968. And you're seeing it now.
"Populist movements take aim at all elites — cultural, financial, political," she continues. "They may start as uprisings, but eventually they become movements for changing and taking over the system.
"But the gilets jaunes aren't interested in governing. They refuse affiliation with any political party or labour union. They are refusing consultation. There is no political offer. What they want is for the 'king' to fall — to yield under threat."
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
VIDEO 1:10 "Yellow jacket" protests continue on Champs-Élysées in Paris.
ABC NEWS
An easy target for anger
As the protests persist, Ms Fieschi sees a historical parallel in the bread riots in England in the 18th century, when people felt not only hungry, but also angry at "a government that was supposed to be guaranteeing moral order".
"There is an unspoken moral law that the people in power should be maintaining a balance of justice for all," she says. "People get angry when they feel as though there is an immorality to the way things are being done."
Who are 'Les Gilets Jaunes'?
Who are the 'Les Gilets Jaunes'?
Hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets across France since mid-November. But what is the "Yellow Vest Movement" and what are they so angry about?
France's highly centralised and polarised political structure makes the government an easy target for popular anger, according to James Sloam, a reader in politics and international relations at Royal Holloway University near London.
"In France the state plays a large role in everyday life," Mr Sloam says. "So when problems related to inequality or perceived inequality surface, the automatic response is to blame the state. And in France, unlike in other countries, when there are street protests, things actually do change."
Germany, by contrast, has a strong federal system and a tradition of government by coalition that "gives all parties incentive to enter into a national conversation with a longer time line," Mr Sloam says. "When people in Germany get angry, they tend to vote for someone else rather than take to the streets."
A protester wearing yellow vest stands on the red light on the Champs-Elysee in Paris.
PHOTO The Champs-Elysee is a regular destination for angry protesters.
REUTERS: BENOIT TESSIER
Newness hurts
While Mr Macron's agenda for France arguably takes the long view — even the hated tax on diesel fuel that sparked the current unrest was meant to be a first step to combat climate change — the peculiar circumstances of his rise to power and his top-down approach to governing have fuelled resentment, Ms Fieschi says.
Mr Macron's fresh new party, La Republique en Marche, garnered enough support from French voters worried about the hard-right National Front to win the presidential and legislative elections in 2017. But now, Ms Fieschi says, that newness is hurting them because when the going gets tough, they don't have deep local support to tap or fall back on.
"To represent and to govern, you need networks," she says. "The established parties — the Socialists, the Republicans — have deep ties throughout the country that helped them stay in touch with the people they represent."
A truck burns during a "yellow vest" protest on the Champs-Elysees in Paris.
PHOTO Protests have been disrupting the country since last month.
REUTERS: BENOIT TESSIER
France's generational divide
Another factor is a generational divide that plays out in France as it does in other mature Western democracies, where the millennial children of the postwar Baby Boomers worry that "their futures are being taken away," Mr Sloam says.
France's rigid labour market, he adds, has created a younger generation of "perpetual outsiders who fear that they will never live as well as their parents. The social contract just isn't there for them".
That divergence was on display in the reaction to Mr Macron's concessions, which included a rise in the minimum wage and a suspension of the diesel tax increase for six months. Older protesters, with families, welcomed the gestures, which they said would make a difference in their lives; younger protesters rejected them, saying they weren't nearly enough.
In addition to sowing dissension in the ranks of the gilets jaunes, the concessions may also be sapping popular support for the movement as French taxpayers realise that they will be paying for the new measures out of their own pockets. Polls taken just after Mr Macron's speech indicate that support is now just under 50 per cent, compared with 70 per cent two weeks ago.
A man holding an umbrella makes his way through tear gas.
PHOTO A man makes his way through tear gas during Saturday's protests.
AP: KAMIL ZIHNIOGLU
'I'll be protesting over Christmas'
Saturday's turnout was lower than expected, but no one in France is taking bets on when the demonstrations will end: "I'll be protesting over Christmas and as long as it takes," Helene Dejesse, 60, an artist, told The Guardian.
Regardless of whether and when the gilets jaunes will eventually disperse, the movement has exposed weaknesses in the Macron approach that will not simply go away — but, if addressed, may provide a way out of the government's current malaise.
One way is to tap into the concerns of younger voters, whom "no candidate in the last presidential elections actively courted," Mr Sloam notes. "By no coincidence, that is the group within the gilets jaunes that is the most hardline."
Another is to do the hard work of building the kind of political apparatus that keeps popular stirrings from turning into revolutionary uprisings.
"Parties and movements are not just for elections," Ms Fieschi says. "You have to listen properly to the people."
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ANALYSIS BY ANNE BAGAMERY
ABOUT 4 HOURS AGO
Email Facebook Twitter WhatsApp
A man yells as two police in helmets try to apprehend him
PHOTO French riot police apprehend a man in a street near Saint Lazare train station during a national day of protest.
REUTERS: PIROSCHKA VAN DE WOUW
The December holiday season is the traditional time of protest in France, and this year has been no exception, with the "gilets jaunes," or yellow vests, showing no signs of packing in their five-week-old popular uprising against economic inequality.
Despite the fact that President Emmanuel Macron has offered an estimated 8 to 10 billion euros' worth of tax cuts and benefit increases to address some concerns and hopefully restore public order, thousands poured into the streets of Paris on Saturday and small ad-hoc protests continue to crop up on street corners and motorway exchanges throughout the country.
But while some commentators lump the gilets jaunes in with the populist movements that are sweeping through Europe from Britain to Italy, experts in populism see a different story — one that has been repeating itself for more than 300 years and is part of the founding mythology of modern-day France.
"You use the toolbox you've got," says Catherine Fieschi, director of Counterpoint, a research consultancy based in London. "In France, there is a deep tradition of revolutionary uprising, so that's the tool the French reach for when they get angry. You saw it in 1789, in 1871, in May 1968. And you're seeing it now.
"Populist movements take aim at all elites — cultural, financial, political," she continues. "They may start as uprisings, but eventually they become movements for changing and taking over the system.
"But the gilets jaunes aren't interested in governing. They refuse affiliation with any political party or labour union. They are refusing consultation. There is no political offer. What they want is for the 'king' to fall — to yield under threat."
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
VIDEO 1:10 "Yellow jacket" protests continue on Champs-Élysées in Paris.
ABC NEWS
An easy target for anger
As the protests persist, Ms Fieschi sees a historical parallel in the bread riots in England in the 18th century, when people felt not only hungry, but also angry at "a government that was supposed to be guaranteeing moral order".
"There is an unspoken moral law that the people in power should be maintaining a balance of justice for all," she says. "People get angry when they feel as though there is an immorality to the way things are being done."
Who are 'Les Gilets Jaunes'?
Who are the 'Les Gilets Jaunes'?
Hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets across France since mid-November. But what is the "Yellow Vest Movement" and what are they so angry about?
France's highly centralised and polarised political structure makes the government an easy target for popular anger, according to James Sloam, a reader in politics and international relations at Royal Holloway University near London.
"In France the state plays a large role in everyday life," Mr Sloam says. "So when problems related to inequality or perceived inequality surface, the automatic response is to blame the state. And in France, unlike in other countries, when there are street protests, things actually do change."
Germany, by contrast, has a strong federal system and a tradition of government by coalition that "gives all parties incentive to enter into a national conversation with a longer time line," Mr Sloam says. "When people in Germany get angry, they tend to vote for someone else rather than take to the streets."
A protester wearing yellow vest stands on the red light on the Champs-Elysee in Paris.
PHOTO The Champs-Elysee is a regular destination for angry protesters.
REUTERS: BENOIT TESSIER
Newness hurts
While Mr Macron's agenda for France arguably takes the long view — even the hated tax on diesel fuel that sparked the current unrest was meant to be a first step to combat climate change — the peculiar circumstances of his rise to power and his top-down approach to governing have fuelled resentment, Ms Fieschi says.
Mr Macron's fresh new party, La Republique en Marche, garnered enough support from French voters worried about the hard-right National Front to win the presidential and legislative elections in 2017. But now, Ms Fieschi says, that newness is hurting them because when the going gets tough, they don't have deep local support to tap or fall back on.
"To represent and to govern, you need networks," she says. "The established parties — the Socialists, the Republicans — have deep ties throughout the country that helped them stay in touch with the people they represent."
A truck burns during a "yellow vest" protest on the Champs-Elysees in Paris.
PHOTO Protests have been disrupting the country since last month.
REUTERS: BENOIT TESSIER
France's generational divide
Another factor is a generational divide that plays out in France as it does in other mature Western democracies, where the millennial children of the postwar Baby Boomers worry that "their futures are being taken away," Mr Sloam says.
France's rigid labour market, he adds, has created a younger generation of "perpetual outsiders who fear that they will never live as well as their parents. The social contract just isn't there for them".
That divergence was on display in the reaction to Mr Macron's concessions, which included a rise in the minimum wage and a suspension of the diesel tax increase for six months. Older protesters, with families, welcomed the gestures, which they said would make a difference in their lives; younger protesters rejected them, saying they weren't nearly enough.
In addition to sowing dissension in the ranks of the gilets jaunes, the concessions may also be sapping popular support for the movement as French taxpayers realise that they will be paying for the new measures out of their own pockets. Polls taken just after Mr Macron's speech indicate that support is now just under 50 per cent, compared with 70 per cent two weeks ago.
A man holding an umbrella makes his way through tear gas.
PHOTO A man makes his way through tear gas during Saturday's protests.
AP: KAMIL ZIHNIOGLU
'I'll be protesting over Christmas'
Saturday's turnout was lower than expected, but no one in France is taking bets on when the demonstrations will end: "I'll be protesting over Christmas and as long as it takes," Helene Dejesse, 60, an artist, told The Guardian.
Regardless of whether and when the gilets jaunes will eventually disperse, the movement has exposed weaknesses in the Macron approach that will not simply go away — but, if addressed, may provide a way out of the government's current malaise.
One way is to tap into the concerns of younger voters, whom "no candidate in the last presidential elections actively courted," Mr Sloam notes. "By no coincidence, that is the group within the gilets jaunes that is the most hardline."
Another is to do the hard work of building the kind of political apparatus that keeps popular stirrings from turning into revolutionary uprisings.
"Parties and movements are not just for elections," Ms Fieschi says. "You have to listen properly to the people."
SHAREEmail Facebook Twitter WhatsApp
RELATED
Man dies after crashing into truck at 'yellow vest' roadblock
What's going on with the 'Gilets Jaunes' protests in France?
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MORE FROM ABC NEWS
HomeJust InPoliticsWorldAnalysis & OpinionBusinessSportScienceHealthArtsLive StreamsVideoPhotosEntertainmentUploadSubscribeRuralOther Topics
Top of page
Change to standard view
ABC NewsJust InWorldBusinessHealthEntertainmentSportAnalysis & OpinionWeatherTopicsArchiveCorrections & Clarifications
Terms of UsePrivacy PolicyAccessibilityContact the ABC© 2018 ABC
