Largely overshadowed by the war in Ukraine, the presidential campaign aroused little enthusiasm in France.
For Jérôme Batret, Yellow Vest from the start, the probable re-election of Emmanuel Macron is a difficult prospect to digest.
In the fall of 2018, the 56-year-old farmer from Auvergne was one of the first to wear the now famous fluorescent vest on the roundabout in his town.
An occupation that had then lasted three weeks.
At that time, the demonstration movement, born spontaneously around the opposition to a fuel tax, grew across the whole of France.
A demonstration particularly marked the spirits, that of December 1, 2018, which had degenerated into an insurrection on the Champs-Élysées and during which the Arc de Triomphe had been ransacked.
A protester waves a French flag on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, near the Arc de Triomphe, during a national day of protest by the Yellow Vests movement in Paris, December 8, 2018. Christian Hartmann, Reuters
Jérôme Batret then had the impression that Macron's fall was "only a matter of days", he recalls.
He did not expect the young president to rise to the challenge and come back stronger three years later, ready for another term.
"The politicians of Paris have nothing to do with us"
Like other rural and suburban workers who formed the backbone of the Yellow Vests insurrection, the farmer saw his purchasing power inexorably reduced during Emmanuel Macron's five-year term, marked by the Covid-19 pandemic and now the fallout from the war in Ukraine.
With soaring energy prices, most of his income is now eaten up by the fuel he needs to run his car, his tractor, and to heat his house.
Longtime Conservative voter Jérôme Batret says he will no longer vote for career politicians "who have never done anything real in their lives".
On April 10, he will cast his ballot in favor of Jean Lassalle, son of Pyrenean shepherds fined 1,500 euros in 2018 for wearing a yellow vest in the National Assembly.
Jean Lassalle wears a yellow vest at the National Assembly, November 21, 2018. © AFP handout
"The politicians in Paris don't care about us," he confides, disillusioned, to France 24. "They make empty promises at election time and then leave us to rot. They have no respect for the people".
In the second round, whatever happens, Jérôme Batret will not vote for the current president.
"On April 24 they will tell us to support Macron as the lesser evil, but I don't think he is," he says.
"If it's Macron against Le Pen again, I'll vote for Le Pen. And if it's Zemmour, I'll leave the country."
"The Yellow Vests did not simply evaporate"
At the height of the protests, Emmanuel Macron, cornered, had agreed to a series of measures to support purchasing power, including an activity bonus for the lowest salaries as well as a reduction in contributions on small pensions.
A "great national debate" had also been launched to respond to the crisis.
At the same time, every Saturday, police forces engaged in a fierce crackdown on protesters that ended up stifling the movement, but not the anger.
"The Yellow Vests did not simply evaporate after removing their vests," analyzes Sciences Po Bordeaux researcher Magali Della Sudda, who has studied the uprising since its inception.
“There are signs that the movement is picking up again, refocusing on its original themes of purchasing power and social justice,” she says, referring to calls on social media to protest against the rising fuel prices.
“Of course, history never repeats itself in the same way, but we can expect the movement to pick up momentum again, in one form or another, in the months to come – for example if Macron its pension reform on the table,” she adds, referring to the disputed government measure, which had been put on hold during the pandemic.
Magali Della Sudda believes that the presidential campaign has only fueled popular resentment against politicians.
"There is a huge gap between the priorities expressed by the Yellow Vests and by the general public, and the interest shown in these subjects by political parties and the media", she judges.
"It took a war in Ukraine for candidates and newspapers to start talking about purchasing power, but the problem of energy and food prices didn't start with the war."
Replace the French "presidential monarchy"
While the Yellow Vests movement has often been described by the media as "apolitical", underlining the expressed rejection of traditional political parties, the researcher considers that its members were on the contrary seeking to recover politics by wresting it from the control of parties and of institutions deemed undemocratic.
A vision shared by Sabine, 56, who compares the experience of yellow vests to a personal and collective awakening.
“First there was the uprising, then the movement took root on roundabouts and social media, and through regular meetings and assemblies,” she explains.
"Over time, we have been able to develop a political thought, in the noble sense of the term, that is to say a commitment to improve the society in which we live."
While she used to "boycott the elections", this primary school teacher from Montpellier now intends to express herself through the ballot box.
"After five years of Macron, I have decided to use my ballot to stop the rot."
More than three years after having put on their luminous vests for the first time, Sabine and a dozen fellow activists found themselves on the roundabout they occupied on the outskirts of Montpellier at the start of the movement.
After long discussions, they decided by a majority to support the left-wing candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon on April 10.
"There were two main requirements for our choice of candidate: to carry our aspirations and to have a chance of beating Macron. Mélenchon is the only one to meet both", explains the teacher.
Sabine and her small group support his promises to cap prices, raise wages, strengthen public services, convene a constituent assembly to write a new constitution and replace the French "presidential monarchy".
The "everything but Macron" vote
"Mélenchon is not our ideal candidate, he is not to everyone's taste and we are well aware that there is no easy solution. But he is our best option", judges Sabine.
"We are at a crossroads: either we change course now or we let governments dismantle our social system. But our fight will not end at the ballot box. Whoever wins on April 24, we will continue to fight. to beat."
As the first round approaches, the candidate of La France insoumise is engaged in a battle for second place with Marine Le Pen, who is ahead of him in the polls.
If both seek to capitalize on the anti-Macron vote, the two candidates have nevertheless been careful not to make too explicit calls for yellow vests, fearing to scare away more moderate voters, explains Frédéric Gonthier, political scientist at the Pacte research center in Grenoble, which has carried out in-depth investigations into the Yellow Vests movement.
“Mélenchon and Le Pen are trying to present themselves as credible alternatives to Macron, softening the most divisive elements of their programs and tempering their populist discourse,” he explains.
"For candidates trying to project an image of respectability, overtly anti-elitist statements aimed at appealing to Yellow Vests would be counterproductive."
From the point of view of the Yellow Vests, neither of Emmanuel Macron's two main rivals embodies the ideal candidate, analyzes Frédéric Gonthier.
Because of his long political career in the Socialist Party, Jean-Luc Mélenchon is considered by many to be a political "apparatchik", while Marine Le Pen's party is "deeply uncomfortable with the issue of police brutality , which is intimately associated with the Yellow Vests", underlines the researcher.
A small window of opportunity
In the fall of 2018, as the movement gained momentum, thugs joined the demonstrations of yellow vests.
Violence breaks out and the police retaliate with zeal.
Several dozen demonstrators, journalists and bystanders were seriously injured by rubber bullets and stun grenades from riot police.
Faced with this violence, which also injured the police, Emmanuel Macron categorically refuses to question the tactics of the police, refuting the term police violence.
A point of no return for a large number of yellow vests, witnesses or victims of this repression, whose anger towards the president remains intact to this day.
"We had never seen anything like it before. They treated us like pariahs", asserts Daniel Bodin, with emotion.
Friend of Sabine, the 66-year-old man was among the first to occupy the roundabout in his town near Montpellier.
Among his grievances against the president, Daniel Bodin cites the many "little sentences" of Emmanuel Macron, on the work that is found "crossing the street" or the "crazy dough" of allowances.
So many outings that arouse visceral repulsion in many yellow vests, even if the fight against macronism goes, for him, much further.
"His comments are proof of his contempt for little people like us, but it would be stupid to stop there. It's the laws he passed that bother me the most," he explains.
The former photographer accuses the president of destroying public services to "privatize everything" and denounces his "authoritarian" and "liberticidal" policies on global security or even the obligation of the vaccination pass.
Like the majority of his small group of activists, Daniel Bodin chose Jean-Luc Mélenchon for the elections.
He sees it as the only chance to reverse "the slide towards neoliberal economics" and to "put our politics back in the hands of the people".
He praises the leftist candidate's promise to introduce a "citizens' initiative referendum", giving voters the power to initiate policy and dismiss their elected representatives.
"But we are neither fans nor groupies," he warns.
"And we don't claim to tell people how to vote – that's what political parties do."
Daniel Bodin recognizes deep divisions within the Yellow Vests movement, between those who are ready to engage in the electoral process and others who "prefer to wait for the system to collapse or for a civil war to break out".
"I understand those who are disgusted with politics and do not want to vote," he adds.
"But we have a very small window of opportunity and we have to try."
Article translated from English by David Rich. To read the article in its original version, click here
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