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Violence Escalates as France Scrambles to Respond to ‘Yellow Vest’ Protesters Violence Escalates as France Scrambles to Respond to ‘Yellow Vest’ Protesters
(about 3 hours later)
PARIS — A third week of protests against the government of President Emmanuel Macron intensified in violence on Saturday, as demonstrators in Paris burned cars, smashed windows and confronted riot police who responded by firing tear gas in the most serious crisis of the French leader’s administration. PARIS — A third week of anti-government protests intensified in violence on Saturday, as demonstrators burned cars, smashed windows and confronted riot police firing tear gas in the heart of Paris in the most serious crisis of President Emmanuel Macron’s administration.
The protests — diffuse, seemingly leaderless and organized over the internet as a spontaneous outcry over high taxes and declining living standards — took a potentially more sinister turn as they were joined by extremists on the left and right, anarchists and organized labor, all seeking to capitalize on the simmering discontent. The ‘‘Yellow Vest’’ protests — spurred by a hike in the gasoline tax, and named for the roadside safety vests worn by the demonstrators — have emerged as a spontaneous outcry over declining living standards.
The catalyst for the protests was the government’s decision to increase gas taxes in 2019 to help pay for the transition to more sustainable energy. But the discontent has been building for years. It reflects the bite of French payroll taxes, which are among the highest in Europe, and disposable income that is below that of several other western European countries. Diffuse, seemingly leaderless and organized over the internet, they have drawn deepening and widespread support around the country, where other demonstrations were mostly peaceful on Saturday.
Overall support for the “yellow vests” movement showed no sign of abating and the government appeared flummoxed over how to respond. It did not help the government that Mr. Macron was 7,000 miles away in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the Group of 20 economic summit meeting. But in Paris the protests took a more sinister turn as they were joined by extremists on the left and right, anarchists and organized labor, all seeking to capitalize on the simmering discontent. The violence crossed a new threshold for the Macron administration, and raised alarm even in a country where organized protest is commonplace.
What started as a tense protest around the Arc de Triomphe descended into violent rioting at several flash points in central Paris. By early evening, some 80 people had been injured, including 14 police officers, and 183 people had been arrested, according to the police. Even if mostly perpetrated by vandals who have now latched on to the movement, the symbolism of the day’s violence was powerful. A modern-day peasants’ and workers’ revolt against a president increasingly disdained for his regal remove turned the country’s richest boulevards and most prominent landmarks into a veritable war zone.
“We are attached to freedom of expression, but also to respect for the law,” said Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who made a point of distinguishing between those who had come prepared to fight the police and those with whom the government was willing to talk. Confrontations between the police and demonstrators, alongside the professional vandals called “casseurs” by the French, spread to several of the city’s most famous sites including Concorde and Trocadero. Overturned cars, some in flames, burned in parts of the 1st arrondissement and the 8th arrondissement far from the Champs-Élysées.
“I am shocked by the violence of such a symbol of France,” he said, referring to the clashes around the Arc de Triomphe and graffiti sprayed on it that read “Yellow Jackets Will Triumph.” Inside the Tuileries Gardens, a car burned in front of the Orangerie. On one side of the burning car was a mass of Yellow Vests and “casseurs,” and on the other a line of riot police, at the Place de la Concorde end of the Tuileries. The demonstrators moved forward and the police responded with a volley of tear gas, scattering the Yellow Vests and the vandals.
Some of the protests in Paris and elsewhere in the country were peaceful. On the other side of the Rue de Rivoli from the Tuileries, several store windows had been smashed in, including at the high-end clothing store Zadig & Voltaire.
It was two weeks into the protests before the government, which had been giving the demonstrators a cold shoulder, agreed to meet with them. First, government officials offered to increase subsidies for buying fuel-efficient cars and installing less-polluting home heating systems, but the protesters indicated that was insufficient since many do not have enough money to buy even a subsidized car. By nightfall, major thoroughfares were covered in broken glass and the smell of tear gas mixed with the smoke from the burning cars. Some 100 people had been injured, including one who was in a coma after being hit by a railing that was torn down by protesters near the Tuileries; 268 people had been arrested, according to the police.
Mr. Philippe then called a meeting with Yellow Vest representatives for Nov. 30. However, since the movement has no leader or even really any representatives, it was unclear whom he invited. The result was that only one or two Yellow Vests showed up at Mr. Philippe’s formal residence at Matignon, a grand house in Paris’ chic 7th arrondissement. It did not help that Mr. Macron was 7,000 miles away in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the Group of 20 economic summit meeting. Even there, the outburst could not be dismissed or ignored, as his government has mostly tried to do over the past few weeks.
The meeting was “interesting, frank and respectful,” said Mr. Philippe, adding that the door remained open. ‘‘What happened today in Paris has nothing to do with the peaceful expression of legitimate anger,” said Mr. Macron, who returns Sunday to Paris.
But the “open door” was undercut by other ministers who publicly said there would be no backing down on the government’s new gas taxes. “Nothing justifies attacking the security forces, vandalizing businesses, either private or public ones, or that passers-by or journalists are threatened, or the Arc de Triomphe defaced,” he said.
His prime minister, Edouard Philippe, made a point of distinguishing between those who had come prepared to fight the police and those with whom the government was willing to talk.
“We are attached to freedom of expression, but also to respect for the law,” said Mr. Philippe, who canceled a planned trip to a climate conference in Poland because of the violence. “I am shocked by the violence of such a symbol of France,” he said, referring to the clashes around the Arc de Triomphe and graffiti sprayed on it that read “Yellow Vests Will Triumph.”
Yet it was two weeks into the protests before the government, which had been giving the demonstrators a cold shoulder, agreed to meet with them. Earlier, government officials had offered to increase subsidies for buying fuel-efficient cars and installing less-polluting home heating systems, but the protesters indicated that was insufficient since many do not have enough money to buy even a subsidized car.
Mr. Philippe then called a meeting with Yellow Vest representatives for Nov. 30. However, since the movement has no leader or even really any representatives, it was unclear whom he invited. The result was that only one or two Yellow Vests showed up at Mr. Philippe’s official residence at Matignon, a grand house in Paris’ chic 7th arrondissement.
The meeting was “interesting, frank and respectful,” said Mr. Philippe, adding that his door remained open.
But the “open door” was undercut by other ministers who publicly said there would be no backing down on the government’s new gas taxes or its overall program.
The good-cop, bad-cop approach did not go over well. A large group of Yellow Vests in Paris marched peacefully with a banner that said, “Macron, Stop Taking Us for Stupid People.”The good-cop, bad-cop approach did not go over well. A large group of Yellow Vests in Paris marched peacefully with a banner that said, “Macron, Stop Taking Us for Stupid People.”
Asked if this referred to the government’s mixed messages, one of the marchers who was holding the edge of the banner said: “Of course. Who does he think we are?”Asked if this referred to the government’s mixed messages, one of the marchers who was holding the edge of the banner said: “Of course. Who does he think we are?”
In many ways the street confrontations on Saturday in Paris, while gripping on television, obscured the movement’s seriousness and its significance for the government. French politicians are accustomed to dealing with violent demonstrations: they occur several times every year, especially in Paris. Sometimes they are in the context of union strikes but more often as part of broader protests. A Yellow Vest representative from Indres, a department in the center of France, who was interviewed on BFM, a television network here, said that Mr. Macron had to take drastic steps to quell the unrest “recognizing that this is a serious moment for our country.”
Far more difficult for the government is dealing with the Yellow Vests who represent a broader swath of the French population than any union and include many who have not yet come out to demonstrate, but who say they are supportive. The problem the government faces is that different factions of the Yellow Vests have different demands. While they all want a better standard of living, some are furious at Mr. Macron for what they see as unjust tax policies that help the rich but do nothing for the poor, and they want him out of office. Others are more focused on raising the minimum wage and reducing social security payments for those of modest means.
Of course, it is possible that reservoir of supporters will not become activists, but if they did, the government would be hard put to cope. Added to that is the reality that many who say they are supportive have not yet come out to demonstrate. While it is possible that this reservoir of supporters will not become activists, if they did the government would be hard put to cope.
President Emmanuel Macron’s dilemma is that in the past when French presidents, under pressure from the French Street, have backed down from their fiscal programs and moderated tax and other spending proposals, they are seen as weak and unable to enact meaningful change. Even on Saturday, the protesters managed to sustain a cat-and-mouse game with police, leaving the Arc de Triomphe when it was being sprayed with tear gas and water cannons, but popping up elsewhere in the city to spread havoc. If violence had broken out in multiple cities, it would is not clear how the government would handle it.
Mr. Macron, whose campaign and now his government have been built on the promise to make needed reforms in France’s labor market and social security costs, would see his dream of bringing back prosperity to France and making it into a 21st century economy at the least cut short. For now, however, Mr. Macron sees mainly disadvantages to trying to strike a deal with protesters.
“Emmanuel Macron regards the presidents of the republic who preceded him as having failed in their reform projects because they gave in to the pressure of the street,” Gérard Noiriel, a historian at the School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences.
“He thinks that this movement, which effectively rallied fewer than 300,000 participants at its first protest and fewer than 80,000 today,” Mr. Noiriel said, “is going to weaken more and more and that the violence of the casseurs is going to discredit the Yellow Vests in public opinion.”
The problem, said Bernard Sananès, president of Elabe, a French polling organization, is that “there are two Frances.”The problem, said Bernard Sananès, president of Elabe, a French polling organization, is that “there are two Frances.”
“One is a France that feels left behind and moving down” the socio-economic ladder, he said in an interview Dec. 1 on BFMTV, a French news channel.“One is a France that feels left behind and moving down” the socio-economic ladder, he said in an interview Dec. 1 on BFMTV, a French news channel.
A study released this past week by the Jean Jaurès Institute, a public policy think tank, said: “In the past, these people could have given themselves some little entertainment; today those little ‘extras’ are out of reach.” A study released this past week by the Jean-Jaurès Institute, a public policy think tank, said: “In the past, these people could have given themselves some outings and entertainment; today those little ‘extras’ are out of reach.”
Multiple surveys of public opinion released in the past week suggest that 70 percent to 80 percent of French people sympathize with the Yellow Vests’ contention that President Emmanuel Macron and his government “talks about the end of the world while we are talking about the end of the month.”Multiple surveys of public opinion released in the past week suggest that 70 percent to 80 percent of French people sympathize with the Yellow Vests’ contention that President Emmanuel Macron and his government “talks about the end of the world while we are talking about the end of the month.”
The movement’s slogan refers to Mr. Macron’s focus on reducing climate change by promoting fuel efficiency and raising gas taxes in contrast to French working people who struggle to make it to the end of their month on their earnings. The slogan refers to Mr. Macron’s focus on reducing climate change by promoting fuel efficiency and raising gas taxes in contrast to French working people who struggle to make it to the end of their month on their earnings.
The Yellow Vests draw their constituency from the majority of French who have watched their take-home pay increasingly fall behind their cost of living. Still, the French are considerably better off than those in Eastern Europe, according to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics arm.The Yellow Vests draw their constituency from the majority of French who have watched their take-home pay increasingly fall behind their cost of living. Still, the French are considerably better off than those in Eastern Europe, according to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics arm.
The median disposable income for a person in a French household was 1,700 euros a month, about $1,923, in 2016, the most recent year for which statistics are available, according to Insee, the French government’s statistics arm.The median disposable income for a person in a French household was 1,700 euros a month, about $1,923, in 2016, the most recent year for which statistics are available, according to Insee, the French government’s statistics arm.
Disposable income reflects the amount left for workers to spend on their daily needs — housing, food, schooling, clothes — after paying income taxes and payroll taxes and making adjustments for any government subsidies for which they might eligible. Disposable income reflects the amount left for workers to spend on their daily needs — housing, food, schooling, clothes — after paying income taxes and payroll taxes and making adjustments for any government subsidies for which they might be eligible.
Often the only way to rein in costs has been to move to the exurbs of major cities, where real estate prices are much lower, but where workers generally must rely on a car to get to work and for errands. Cars need gas and so any gas tax increase hits them. Taxes have also risen on tobacco and other goods.Often the only way to rein in costs has been to move to the exurbs of major cities, where real estate prices are much lower, but where workers generally must rely on a car to get to work and for errands. Cars need gas and so any gas tax increase hits them. Taxes have also risen on tobacco and other goods.
For rural workers and those who live in distant small villages in the heart of France, a car is even more clearly a necessity.For rural workers and those who live in distant small villages in the heart of France, a car is even more clearly a necessity.
Centrist politicians, even some who support Mr. Macron, are beginning to push for a more engaged response from the government.Centrist politicians, even some who support Mr. Macron, are beginning to push for a more engaged response from the government.
“You can’t govern against the people,” said François Bayrou, the leader of the Moderate Democrats in Parliament, who are partners with Mr. Macron’s Les Republiques En Marche party in an interview on Europe 1. “You can’t govern against the people,” said François Bayrou, the leader of the Moderate Democrats in Parliament, who are partners with Mr. Macron’s La Republique En Marche party in an interview on Europe 1.
He said he did was not sure of the answer, but he said the government can’t keep “adding taxes on top of taxes.” Mr. Bayrou said he was not sure of the answer, but the government can’t keep “adding taxes on top of taxes.”