"Yellow West" protests: Before the Battle of Paris

There are hardly any ministers or secretaries of state with experience in the French government. Geneviève Darrieussecq is an exception. Secretary of State in the Department of Defense has spent decades in politics - and said on Thursday plain text: "The Republic is under attack," she said with a view to the "yellow vest" protests. "The demonstrators want to see the mess."

President Emmanuel Macron sent it on Thursday, also because he recognizes how overwhelmed his many young ministers and parliamentarians are in the face of violent demonstrations. The situation could escalate further on the weekend in Paris. An official communiqué from the Elysee Palace warns of "great violence", police unions are expecting "urban guerrillas".

Nationwide, there is growing discontent - and the number of demonstrators: high school students and students, truck drivers and farmers, trade unions and opposition parties are entering a social movement that has taken everyone by surprise.

Macron is busy - and the protesters feel it

So far, it is the so-called "yellow vests" that bring the President in distress. Motorists in yellow safety vests have been blocking roads and highways since November 17 to protest the increase in gas taxes on January 1. They were now successful.

On Wednesday, Macron finally pulled back the tax increase, after his Prime Minister Edouard Philippe had recently just announced her postponement for six months. Philippe had to witness how he defended the respite before the Paris National Assembly, when the Elysee Palace in the name of Macron already spoke of the cancellation of the gasoline tax.

AFP

Edouard Philippe

The protesters feel Macron lavish. "The President has still not personally commented on our movement, we are waiting for him," said Thursday morning a woman in a yellow vest blocking the A7 motorway from Lyon to Marseille. "People are still on the street, because despite the tax avoidance, they have not gained any purchasing power," said another demonstrator.

Such statements indicate that the demands of the movement have become radicalized. The tax evasion is no longer enough for the yellow vests. They now demand real profits, such as an increase in the minimum wage. But where there is something to gain, others do not want to be inferior.

"Macron forgot us"

First, the high school students jumped with. In the vicinity of Paris alone, no normal school operation could take place on Thursday in about 200 grammar schools. Many students had already got up at night to barricade their school gates with garbage cans. When the police intervened in some places, the students lit garbage cans filled with paper.

"At our school there is no heating and no substitute teachers Macron has forgotten us," said a high school graduate of the Mozart High School in the Paris suburb of Blanc-Mesnil his protest. This could soon join many students, even if in Paris on Thursday only two universities were blocked. Already in the spring, there were many, then unsuccessful student protests against Macron's university reform. These could now flare up again.

It is already clear that at the weekend two of the three largest trucker unions in France will join the protest of the "yellow vests". They want to strike on Sunday evening. That would be a help for the "yellow vests". The truck drivers only have to drive at a snail's pace to cause traffic jams everywhere.

Cow herds on highways - and a new police strategy in Paris

In France, the farmer unions, which are currently discussing how they want to help the "yellow vests" from next week onwards, are also trying their luck. It is possible that they will soon drive herds of cow over the highways.

In France's rural areas, that would be more of a leisurely streetside protest - with treats donated by local residents; Alcohol is strictly prohibited against all French habits. In Paris, however, threatened again violence.

Secretary of State Darrieussecq speaks of right and left extremist groups; these "infiltrated" the "yellow vests". Young people from the suburbs also used the situation for looting. On the other hand, the police want to proceed harder now.

photo gallery

15 pictures

So far she had been engaged in demonstrations with large units. This time, she wants to attack with many small, mobile troops that previously also in small mobile groups acting demonstrators directly and force them to retreat. For Saturday, 65,000 police and other law enforcement officers were mobilized, said Prime Minister Philippe.

One thing is already clear to Macron: the Parisian triumphal arch must not be stormed a second time by protesters. How much further the president's strategy goes is uncertain.