"Yellow Vests"—New French Revolution?

Liberty Leading the People (revisited)

We will regretfully be taking a short research break this winter, as life's surprises pile up, leaving us little time to publish. Thanks to all our regular readers for your patience and support.

But first: a view from the catbird's seat of the latest protest movement to sweep France. Your humble author has lived among the French for many years, so… What is going on? Why are people so angry? Are these the rumblings of a new French Revolution?

Champs Elysées, Paris

A quick press round-up is in order.

1) Who are the Yellow Vests?

'Macron, I'm defending my future'

They aren't Parisians, or big-city folks at all. These are small- and mid-sized town, working-class people from 'flyover' France, who absolutely need a car to get to work. Retirees too, who've seen their pensions decline under Macron. They are low-income, blue-collar, patriotic in a country that sneers at patriotism. They are also overwhelmingly native French. One might call them France's 'deplorables.'

Bikers join the fray, Alès (south)

France is known as the 'strike capital of the world' for good reason, but this time, curiously, there is no one in charge. No trade unions, no political parties, no civil servant groups. This seems to be a truly popular, spontaneous, grass-roots uprising cooked up entirely on social media.

2) What started the movement?

Highway near Bordeaux (southwest)

Fuel taxes. As part of its 'ecological transition,' France is trying to phase out fossil fuels and power itself with 'clean energy.' (Is such a goal possible, or desirable? That's a whole other ball of wax.) The state has been raising fuel taxes steadily, and this hike is set to go into overdrive in 2019.

   Image source

So... all this sound and fury for a little gas hike?

In fact, the French are already some of the most taxed people on the planet. Almost 50% of their GDP is made up of taxes of one kind or another. Unemployment is stuck chronically around 10%, purchasing power is falling, and people today fear their kids will live less well than they did.

This tax was, in a sense, the straw that broke the camel's back.

'Get angry: Too many taxes, too many suicides, too many homeless: WAKE UP!'

A simple French citizen named Priscilla Ludosky launched an online petition some months ago against the tax hike, from there it spread through social media, and the rest is history.

Why yellow vests? A recent law has made them mandatory in all vehicles, so the French already had a ready-made costume (and a way to flip off the nanny state) in the glove box.

Protester: 'Let Macron live with 1200€ per month!'

3) Where are they protesting?

Map of protests

In a word, 'everywhere.' 

Paris is the focus of the world press, but in reality this is not a Parisian movement at all. This is small-town, flyover France to the core. That is where the real Gilets Jaunes can be found:

Narbonne, south (pop. 53k)

Rochefort, southwest (pop. 24k)

Caen, north (pop. 100k)

Montauban, southwest (pop. 60k)

Clermont l'Hérault, south (pop. 9k)

Roundabouts and on-ramps have been a favored protest spot. The Yellow Vests have been camping out, barbecueing, and rallying motorists for support:

Brest, west

Montpellier, south

Tollbooths have also been prized targets, as protesters break the barriers and let motorists get on toll-free:

Muret, southwest

Lyon, south

Basque Country, southwest

Refineries, warehouses, ports, and factories have also been blocked, in an effort to gum up the works and get people angry:

Calais, north, blocking port access

In addition, tax offices have been heavily targeted:

As of Monday, 134 tax offices have been targeted in 55 departments. Internal revenue has denounced these "acts of vandalism" such as "fires, trash piles in front, as well as putting locks on the doors."

Bourg-en-Bresse (center east) tax office walled over, 'Macron Resign'

Ambérieu (center east) tax office walled over, 'Up against the wall'

Limoges (center west), 'walling in' the Regional Assembly building

4) What else are they angry about?

The center-left government has been quick to paint the protesters as 'far-right', a handy smear as effective in France as it is in the U.S.  Here is one of its spokesmen:

'A majority of Yellow Vests have said to me, they all agree, that there are too many foreigners in the hospitals, and that it's not normal that they get treated for free.'

Aside the fact this flunky has hardly spoken to half a million French protesters, there is a kernel of truth here, something largely unsaid in all this anger: One of the reasons the French are taxed half to death is that they have, for the past forty years, been importing an extremely costly foreign underclass.

Narbonne (south), fire at tax office

We've touched on this before in 'The Diversity Tax', but to keep it brief, this underclass punches far above its weight in welfare use, crime and all its attendant costs, and pushing white-flighters ever farther from cities (whence their need for cars). That's not even touching the new 'refugee' hordes, who are also granted free housing, food and medical care simply for stumbling over the border--all of which is paid for by the working French.

'Taxes, gasoline, migrants…The French are out of money!'

Side note: Who is burning Paris?

Protests in 99% of France have been peaceful, so why is Paris a war zone? Some is due to genuine 'Yellow Vests,' who are putting up barricades and lighting fires in homage to the great revolts of French history. 

But most of the horrific images seen on TV are the work of Antifa, with which Paris is crawling...

Antifa and communist symbols

...and of the millions-strong diverse underclass living all around the city, who never miss a chance (New Year's Eve, World Cup) to destroy and pillage.

The local Diversity shows up to loot shops

Almost all of the arrests, violence, and vandalism have occurred in Paris, host to a small percentage of protesters, while in the rest of France, citizens have managed to resist looting and burning down their hamlets.

5) How is the government reacting?

Paris, atop the Arc de Triomphe

For the moment, with a solid 'Stay the course':

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner has said 'We've screwed up.' In not listening to the anger of the Yellow Vests? Not at all. 'We haven't communicated well, we haven't explained properly why we all need to reduce our petrol use.'

Macron is getting dangerously close to a Marie Antoinette moment:

According to Macron, there'll be no 'moratorium' on the gas hike planned for January 1^st. 'People are expecting me to bend, but you can't be pro-environment on Monday and then anti-gas-tax on Tuesday.' He tried to blame his predecessors and their '40 years of small decisions,' and called for a 'great dialogue on the ecological transition, to transform this anger into solutions.'

In a nutshell, 'Let them eat cake.'

Protester: 'The police are body slamming senior citizens out here'

6) Has the next French Revolution begun?

No one knows. As the days go by, things seem to be intensifying. Regional protests began peacefully:

Before the courthouse, Carcassonne (south)

At the prefecture gates, Tarbes (southwest)

Some elected officials have even lent their support:

Morbecque town hall, put up by the mayor himself (north)

Béziers, mayor and city council don yellow vests (south)

But some Yellow Vests are radicalizing:

Nimes, gas bombs in front of the prefecture (south)

Puy-en-Velay, prefecture set on fire (south)

Balaruc, highway signs burned (south)

Virsac, tollbooth destroyed (southwest)

Speed radar disabled with help of a wild boar (southwest)

What happens next? It truly is anyone's guess, as the general feeling in France is that we have officially reached terra incognita. We shall keep updating, as things are moving fast.

Otherwise, a snug and happy winter to all our readers. After a short research break, we hope to be back online quickly sharing HBD data with any who may find it of interest.


Thank you, as always, for reading.