Maybe it was the one demonstration too much that could tip the mood against the yellow vests. So far, the social protest movement, which for the 14th consecutive week argues for more purchasing power for the lower middle class and against the policy of the Paris government, is still supported by a majority of French respondents.
But on Saturday it got uglier, uglier than usual from time to time in recent months: not far from the Montparnasse train station in Paris, marchers in yellow west crossed the path of the philosopher Alain Finkielkraut, who lives in this Parisian neighborhood. He is well-known for his right-wing theses on the alienation and loss of identity of the French, which he attributes to the aggressiveness of radical Islam and a defenseless left.
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Alain Finkielkraut
But Finkielkraut is also a Jew, whose father survived the deportation to Auschwitz and whose grandparents were murdered there. His literary work gave him the appointment as a member of the prestigious French Academy .
The yellow vests in Montparnasse did not care that on Saturday. "Fascist, stay home!" - "Zionist!" - "Get off, we are the French people!" Such were the more innocent sayings with which demonstrators drove the philosopher into a side street.
Outrage against "provocation"
The ugly scene was filmed and broadcast in France on all channels. The indignation was correspondingly great. President Emmanuel Macron tweeted about a "negation of who we are and what makes us a great nation." He referred to Finkielkrauts rise from a Polish emigrant to a member of the French Academy . The prosecution began investigations into "racist insults". On Sunday she already identified the first alleged responsible persons. A protester in Montparnasse nevertheless called out: "He came with the intention of provoking us" - and said Finkielkraut.
In the video: Yellow-veined protesters berate Jewish philosophers
Camera One
All too well fit the dispute over the philosopher in a currently spreading opinion in the established circles of politics and the media, the yellow vests would be in the end but above all only a movement of right-wing and left-wing extremists. They are increasingly under suspicion of anti-Semitism.
Only a few days ago, the government had reported an increase in "anti-Semitic acts" in France in 2018 from 311 to 541. Previously, the number had been declining for two years. But now the yellow vests should be responsible for the renewed increase. Even Finkielkraut doubted that before the events on the weekend: "Had not a few yellow vests written the names of Macron and Rothschild on the same poster, nobody would even have taken notice of the new numbers," he said in an interview with "Figaro". ,
Between anti-Semitism and criticism
In fact, many yellow vests are evidence of Macron's economic liberal stance that he spent his political career working for the Paris investment bank Rothschild - which has been owned by a Jewish family for over 180 years. But are the yellow vests therefore more anti-Semitic than other Frenchmen, who, according to polls by the French Human Rights Commission, believe 38 percent believe that "Jews have a special relationship to money"?
"Nonsense", contradicts the editor-in-chief of the Paris news portal Mediapart, Edwy Plénel. His book about the yellow vests will be published in the next few weeks, I see them as having a social-revolutionary - and not a racist-nationalist - character. Plénel attributes the current "defamation" of the yellow vests on a "social hatred" of the Paris elites compared to the now rebelling underclasses from the province. He says Macron and his government "do everything they can to brutalize and criminalize the movement."
A harder pace of the police
What Plénel means, was exemplified on Saturday in Paris: As soon as some yellow vests deviated from the prescribed route of the demonstration in a side street, they met mobile police units with shield and clubs and drove them back to the main road. No sooner had the announced time of the demonstration on the field of Mars at the Eiffel Tower expired, the officials dissolved the crowd with tear gas, water cannons and missiles.
Normally the police give the demonstrators time to disperse. But even in peaceful rallies, as on Saturday in Paris, the impression arises that violence prevails. If now also the grandfather Finkielkraut, who originally belonged to the supporters of the yellow vests, from them - does the movement then still have a chance to maintain their popularity in public?
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In reality, nothing is decided. Spring weather is also catching on in France. That could give the yellow vests an unexpected boost. "They must ideologically choose between the historically legitimated in France for the overthrow of the regime or reforms and clearly distinguish themselves from the charge of racism," said the editor of the tabloid sheet "Le Parisien", Jannick Alimi.
One of the most well-known yellow-vein leaders, nurse Ingrid Levavasseur from Rouen, northern France, took the advice to the point that she stepped down from the top spot on a yellow-voted list of European elections and announced over the weekend: "I want to go to democracy and return to the base I do not want to do what other parties do. "
Whether revolution or reform was the goal, but she did not say. Perhaps the majority of the French will not turn their backs on the yellow vests until that question is settled. In any case, the episode Finkielkraut, who is a reformer and yet does not like the other conservatives demonize the revolution, was also not intended to create more clarity at this point.