INVESTIGATION
It was a year ago, the social ufo-shaped movement of "yellow vests" had just taken shape. To celebrate this anniversary marking the beginning of the protest, November 17, 2018, protests on Saturday and Sunday. Less than 15 days after the first roundabout occupations, Europe 1 had decided to pack its bags for a week in Mourenx, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, to understand the springs of anger that animated the "yellow vests".
>> This commune of 7,000 inhabitants was the headquarters of the editorial office of Europe 1 because it gathered a number of issues denounced by the movement: few public transport, a middle class that felt to be downgraded ... year later, while Emmanuel Macron has released 10 billion euros to revalue the activity premium, finance an exceptional bonus at the end of the year and to tax the overtime, have things changed in Mourenx? A year later, our journalist returned to the scene to take stock.
"We survive"
For the inhabitants of this small town, Emmanuel Macron's measures had no impact. Already, the price of gasoline, the first reason for anger, has lost just 10 cents a liter. And next, the charges denounced by traders for example, have not really moved. "We are still so angry," says Hélène at the microphone of Europe 1. "What has changed since last year, it was my rental tax: less 23 euros on the year.That's all. After the gas has gone up, and my salary has not moved, "says this manager of a Mourenx grocery store.
And when we make her listen to her testimony collected in 2018, she is adamant: "We do not live, we survive, I'm more and more obliged to eat my unsold products, and in any case, the 'yellow vests' have nothing They've tried it's true ... but hey, it's not their fault, it's the state's fault! "
"Very few people have been concerned with this activity bonus story"
The other phenomenon that came out of Mourenx was the dismay of the middle class: the feeling that a good, stable job is not always enough. He did not change either. "I must be at 1,600 euros per month," tells the microphone of Europe 1 Maryline, who runs a real estate agency. "When you have kids who are students, that's not enough, because financially, once you've paid the rent, you do your shopping, and you've gone up, there's not much left to do. end of the month". The measures of Emmanuel Macron? She scans them: "Very few people have been concerned with this activity bonus story, and not me".
As for the tax exemption of overtime, the answer is no better, "Absolutely nothing! The middle class is getting poorer and if we continue like that, we will soon no longer have a middle class."
>> READ ALSO - "Yellow Vests": relive our video meetings with the inhabitants of Mourenx
And the news is not better for Christmas, the pensioner who had been forced to resume a bakery to round off his too small pension, had to close in the spring for lack of customers. But if things have gotten harder for him, he still has his yellow jacket prominently under the windshield of his car. "It still changed things in mentalities, there was an awareness and will-doing of the president.Now, change the realities is hyper long.It should accelerate to not let people on the side, "he analyzes.
Like many, Christmas hopes to see the movement regain strength on the occasion of this "anniversary", last week the demonstration of "yellow vests" closest to Mourenx has gathered just 60 people in the streets of Pau.
Find the four days of reports made to Mourenx at the beginning of the movement of "yellow vests":
Day 1 :
Christmas, 70, created his grocery store: "It works, but not enough to get me a salary"
The anger of 'yellow vests' felt here "maybe more than anywhere else"
The inexorable sensation among locals that "everything is increasing"
Day 2:
How Mourenx, 6,500 inhabitants, helps job seekers to move to find work
"We are waiting for Emmanuel Macron to be closer to us"
The speech of Emmanuel Macron did not soothe these "yellow vests": "We can not see it anymore!"
Day 3:
The fight of the town hall to keep alive the shops of downtown
A solidarity garage to help precarious workers
Day 4:
The ancients are nostalgic of the time when racism did not exist
Some retirees give up care because of lack of means