She hasn’t worn a yellow vest in ages, but if President Emmanuel Macron is re-elected, Priscilla Ludosky (36) will most likely wear yellow again. Her petition against fuel price hikes fueled the yellow vest movement — the large-scale protest movement at the start of Macron’s presidency that would profoundly disrupt his term in office. And not just his tenure; the violent clashes between authorities and protesters have exposed deep rifts in French society.
Three major crises have scarred France in the past five years – the yellow vests, the corona pandemic and now the war in Ukraine. But unlike the last two, the threat in the protest movement did not come from outside, but from the heart of society. The yellow vest revolt was a direct reaction to French politics and Macron’s policies in particular. And the anger at the underlying social inequality is still brewing.
Established Parties
Macron’s election in 2017 sparked a wave of positive energy. The youngest French president ever – 39 years – would prepare France for the future with nothing less than a Revolution!, as the title of his campaign book promised. ‘Not left and not right’, but pragmatically he would tackle inequality, modernize the economy and enable a new politics, separate from the old established parties. Against the nationalistic pessimism of his radical right-wing rival Marine Le Pen, Macron’s choice was that of the way forward.
At least, that’s how it was for voters who recognized themselves in him, says Ludosky: young, financially comfortable, full of confidence in the system. She herself had a very different feeling about the new president. ‘How can someone who has been politically active so young and for a relatively short time rise to the highest office so quickly? My thought was: there must be a lot of money behind that.’
Like millions of other Frenchmen, Ludosky, then an entrepreneur with a cosmetics boutique in Savigny-le-Temple, just outside Paris, had cast a blank vote in the second round of the presidential election. A choice counted among the invalid votes in France – in 2017 there were 4 million in total, in addition to another 12 million French who had not voted at all. An unprecedented high number, indicative of the mistrust and resistance towards both candidates.
Ludosky sums up the reasons for her distrust via video link: ‘Growing up in a suburb of Paris, I knew that access to good education is not equal everywhere; we had difficulty accessing the prestigious grandes écoles, for example. In the corporate world, I had seen how non-democratic many companies are run, with no regard for the employees, who suffer from burnout en masse. And on Martinique, where I come from, I saw the great damage to health and biodiversity caused by the use of very aggressive pesticides.’
Outside the big cities
The new president Macron not only pledged to tackle inequality and poverty, but also made the fight against climate change a priority. In that context, he announced an increase in the excise tax on fuel in 2018, which was intended to discourage car use. Ludosky, however, saw the measure mainly as betrayal: ‘The idea was solidarity climate policy, based on the principle that the polluter pays. But Macron only focused on car users, leaving the shipping and aviation industry alone. The measure mainly affected private French people outside the major cities who depend on the car for work and care.’
Ludosky has often launched petitions on education and climate, but her call for resistance against the announced increase in excise duties via Change.org has received massive support. More than a million French people signed the petition. On November 17, 2018, the first large-scale demonstration in Paris of what would become the Yellow Vest movement, a mass popular uprising that united the left and the (far) right, was followed all over France and would grip the country well into 2019 with weekly demonstrations and violent clashes with the police.
President Macron, a former Rothschild banker, once again established his reputation as president of the riches, president of the rich. He previously abolished the tax on large wealth. The protestors’ demands soon spread widely: not only fuel prices suffered, but also the inequality and the gap between citizen and politics, between town and countryside, between the winners and losers of economic liberalism, fueled the anger.
Just climate policy
The strategy to pacify the yellow vests was a combination of concessions, repression and a listening ear. The excise tax increase was dropped, Macron twice promised a package of purchasing power measures totaling 17 billion euros. Income tax went down, as did the overtime tax. The ‘Grand Débat National’, a series of 10,000 meetings across France, gave citizens the opportunity to share their concerns. Later 150 French people chosen by lottery were given the opportunity to arrive at a socially just climate policy in a citizens’ meeting for the climate.
But there was also repression. Police responded to the protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets – several protesters lost an eye or a hand, eleven French people were killed. In addition, the government introduced fines of 135 euros for participating in an unannounced demonstration. “People waiting for the bus with a saline solution and a pack of tissues in their bags have already been ticketed,” said Magali Della Sudda, who studies social movements at the University of Bordeaux and specializes in the yellow vests. ‘A form of preventive justice that is extremely worrying.’
The protests were silenced, but so was the anger. Della Sudda sees signs that the movement is picking up again. ‘Particularly in the south and in Brittany, there is a strong will to resist social inequality, fueled by the sharp rises in the price of food, energy and other basic necessities.’ She calls the yellow vests “a revelation to the political crisis” in France. ‘Many of the participants are committed, believe in democracy, but do not vote – they want a democracy in which they are heard better and in which politicians are better monitored.’
The highly centralized power of the president, to which the yellow vests were a response, has strengthened Macron all the more, Della Sudda says. He removed powers from mayors, made extensive use of presidential decrees and used the option of bypassing a vote in parliament for the pension reform. That is intended for exceptional crisis situations.’ Ultimately, Macron had to abandon his desired pension reform, but if he is re-elected, he wants to go ahead with the plans.
Tax reduction
The Grand Débat and the citizens’ council were great processes, but hardly anything was done with the outcome. If Macron is re-elected, another large-scale protest is “highly likely,” Della Sudda said. Some of his promised revolution has come, she says — deregulation, investment in new technology, tax cuts — but many of the original yellow vests feel that Macron has given them nothing.
Or maybe, based on the early activist Ludosky, who now works for several social organizations in the field of citizen participation and ecology? ‘Motivation to continue our protest together’, that is what the past presidency has brought her. She is still thinking about the form, but in recent months she has received additional training in leadership, among other things. What will she vote for on Sunday? ‘I’m not sure yet. But it won’t be a blank vote.’