Paris, Nov 12 (AFP/APP): On a November Saturday one year ago, hundreds of thousands of angry French donning fluorescent jackets took to the streets across the country, beginning one of the biggest and most unusual protest movements in the country’s modern history.
Twelve months after that first November 17 demonstration against social inequalities by the “gilet jaunes” (yellow vests) protesters, the numbers taking to the streets have starkly diminished, the movement is rudderless and President Emmanuel Macron can claim to have largely seen off the challenge.
But the yellow vests have nonetheless left an indelible mark on France, forcing the government into billions of euros of tax breaks, sending a clear message to Macron he needed to change style, and raising new questions about heavy-handed police tactics.
And as Macron — who swept to power in 2017 on the wave of pledges to transform France — looks to the second phase of his term up to 2022 elections, the challenge from the street may not be over.
The yellow vests, who wear the high-visibility waistcoats that French drivers must carry by law in case of breakdown, have staged 52 consecutive weeks of protests, and at their peak in December even stormed the Arc de Triomphe in central Paris.
But now just a few hundred protesters gather every Saturday in Paris, Toulouse and other French cities to press the central demands of more help for France’s less well-off.
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