“Anger against Macron is untouchable”: Can the “Yellow Vests” revive the movement this Saturday, January 7?

Will this start of the year mark the return of the Yellow Jackets every Saturday? Four years after the start of this unprecedented social movement, a new mobilization is being organized in Paris this Saturday, December 7.

Can there be success? “It is always very difficult to predict, warns Emmanuelle Reungoat, a political science teacher who specializes in the yellow vests. Many have left the struggle due to repression. There are many who are interested in the benefits of this struggle..

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Hard cores remain across France, however, and a post-inflationary pension reform promises to be a new spark for this civil protest. Basically, “Sleeping networks remain ready to mobilize. For many, this mobilization was proof that they can change the world by coming together, it’s called ’empowerment.’“explains the political scientist.

The banner was removed in Montpellier

The history of the Prés d’Arènes district in Montpellier has never been left behind. Richard and Gilbert hope to find the mobilizations of the beginning “The crackdown has taken a toll. There is fear among some. However, we measure the same anger and rage as in 2018. Maybe even higher.”, warn these two retirees who won’t go all the way to Paris. But as every Saturday, who will occupy the circle of Montpellier. It will then go to the Place de la Comédie at 2:00 p.m.

In a sign that the mobilization was unsettling at the state’s highest peak, police arrived on Wednesday to unfurl a banner that read: “Macron and his laws are out!”. “We see this as a pressure shock, a sign that they are starting to panic at the top.”Richard laughs.

Six months of imprisonment and healthy mobilization

Roland Veuillet of Nîmes will be mobilized in Snow as he has been since the first day “November 17, 2018”. This figure of the Yellow Vests paid dearly for his protests: six months in prison and a fine of around 4,000 euros: “All disputed and paid for by the state”, it defines the National Education scholarship. For him “The protest is intact, the anger against Macron remains the same. But many are waiting. It remains a diffuse movement, difficult to understand.”.

“The ideological makeup of Yellow Vests is very heterogeneous: they agree less on public issues like the economy, purchasing power, tax justice, immigration, cultural identity or security. Which cannot be turned into a political movement. They are very suspicious of unions.”Emmanuelle Reungoat explains.

Another shape to invent?

It is difficult to imagine the closeness of the struggles “Several thousand people can quickly swell the ranks of the Nimes demonstrationRoland Veuillet recalls. The movement can be successful because the maturing grounds create conditions for an even stronger social explosion.”. Maybe in the form of Yellow Vests, maybe “under something else to invent”Richard argues.

Of course, at the peak of activity in the Prés d’Arènes, around thirty people are active when up to 300: “The spirit of the yellow vests remains and is absorbed into the social movement. A movement without labels, unions and far from political parties”Gilbert remembers.

The spark remains for it to start again, as in 18.