France's Yellow Jacket Protests See Flipped Cars, Tear Gas, and a 21-Year-Old Beaten by Police
Men and women dressed in bright yellow vests took to the streets in Paris over the weekend resulting in more than 400 arrests, dozens of cars going up in flames, and over 100 people injured in France’s worst urban riot in years, the Associated Press reported.
These 5,000 protestors known as Yellow Jackets, dressed in the yellow fluorescent vests that motorists in France must have in their cars, started their movement on November 17, according to the AP, as a demonstration against increased taxes on gas and diesel fuel. They said that French President Emmanuel Macron's policies unequally hurt the French working poor. Macron has insisted the tax increases were necessary to combat climate change.
The Yellow Jackets reportedly started on social media, primarily Facebook, as a grassroots mass protest movement, according to City Lab, with seemingly no wider political agenda or links to existing groups. Beyond the cost of gas and diesel fuel, there’s no real consensus on what the group is protesting or why. Moreover, there appears to be no de facto leader or person who speaks on behalf of the group.
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📸: Veronique de Viguerie
