As the leaderless movement is taking on the French ‘President of the elite,’ Macron faces an uphill task to placate the poor and middle class protesters whose demands entail massive capitulation on his part

The Yellow Vests Movement, also known as “Mouvement des gilets jones”, broke out in France in mid-November. It started against the Emmanuel Macron Government’s decision to hike fuel prices from January 1 next year. By the first week of December, the popular movement spilled on to Belgium and the Netherlands.

The movement’s focus is to highlight the frustration on the economic front, and the working class and poor families’ deep distrust  of the political bosses of their respective countries.

The writing on the wall is clear: “Not only France, but entire Europe is unhappy with its elite”.

The moot point is why the picketers are donning “yellow vests”? It is interesting to note that this year the Macron Government made a law that requires all French motorists to wear high visibility vests while driving on the road. Therefore, these vests have become widely available, cheap and easily identifiable in public. This might be the sole reason why the protesters have practically nailed their colours to the mast.

Initially, developed as a social media movement, the Gilet Jones has gradually graduated from a simple fuel price hike protest against the Government to a movement led by leaderless spectrum of interest groups across France. But it has taken a record high, indeed historical, momentum of rage against the authority in the capital city of Paris.

The worst part of the Gilet Jones is that the movement has been hijacked by the ultra-violent protesters. People have viewed the most destructive scenes in public. Destroying public properties in the name of rising against the elite or the Macron Government is definitely scuttling popular appeal towards the uprising. And this is pressing the security agencies to crack down on looters and law breakers.

Why the Gilet Jones are so angry? Since the onset of the debt crisis in Europe, a galaxy of problems relating to politics, economic, security and bilateral as well as multi-lateral has had serious impact on the lives and living conditions of the people.

The crisis led to the loss of vitality and vigour of most of the corporate biggies. And in turn, it snowballed into major setbacks in the form of joblessness, leading to the sharp fall of family and individual incomes.

Today, the Macron Government has conceded to the demands of the protesters and is scrapping the unpopular fuel tax hike in its upcoming Budget and has dropped the prices of electricity and gas.

Trying to placate the protesters, Macron promised, “I am determined to recognise and take into account all the feelings and resentments expressed in this crisis”.

 However, Macron’s statement has not yet abated the Yellow Vest protest.

It seems the promise came too late. But it is good that Macron has admitted that he underestimated the distress of the ordinary people of his country. Meanwhile, European Union (EU) leaders have backed Macron. The EU Budget Commissioner, Gunther Oettinger, has said that Macron has “lost authority with his Budget for 2019” by upping his spending in response to the Yellow Vest protests, “but he remains a strong supporter of the European Union”.

Macron may find it much easier to wade through this crisis for the time being as the EU has agreed to accept a budget deficit of his country over the organisation’s three per cent ceiling in 2018 as one-time exception.

Oettinger’s expectation is very high: “It is crucial now that Macron continues his reform agenda, especially in the labour market and that France remains on reform track.”

However, what will seriously bring pressure on Macron is that continuing reforms would be difficult amid such upheavals facing Europe time and again.

The post-globalised scenario as predicted by many experts, not only of France but for many other countries, would be a clash of civilisations simply because of millions of migrants, particularly from the war-ravaged West Asia. It has hit hard the white middle class population across Europe.

The difference between the old protests of France and the current one is that the earlier movements were guided by militant union leaders or by an Opposition politician, whereas this is run by rag-tag coalition of people. Therefore, it is difficult for Macron to strike a deal either to lift the roadblocks or to lessen the damage.

Immediate impact would be on the electoral prospect of Macron’s En Marche Party in upcoming European elections.

Some commentators say this movement fits a global pattern of revolt against status quo politics, but the protesters are putting the French accent high on alert. That is why this uprising has been described as the most violent since the May protest of 1968.

Macron, the man who prided himself for overthrowing the old order of European political system, is now facing the worst crisis in his political career.

When he took over the Elysee Palace, he almost blew up the sclerotic political system that hardly cared for the poor and the middle class of France for years. Soon he has brought, rather imposed, sweeping reforms on the labour markets and the State Railways.

And interestingly, Macron dared to do it over these largely unrepresentative bodies. Meanwhile, he started cutting funds for the local bodies across France.

On the personal front, his approval rating has gone down to a record low in recent months. The centrist technocrat has not been able to manage the crisis. His acting tough is leading him to new blind spots of uncertainty.

Will the wages of workers going to increase to 100 Euros every month? The French capitalists are surely going to play safe as this will hardly cost them anything because they will recalculate only the full-time hours of work.

That means the workers will not be paid for the overtime. It has been going around that the year-end bonus for the employees would be at the discretion of the company bosses. Many of the protesters are saying Macron is worse than former conservative President Sarkozy.

But what worries Macron more is that the Gilet Jones are not at all happy about his announcement of concessions.

Granting concessions in special areas is not mollifying all the protesters, some of them are demanding higher wages, better pensions, lower taxes, easier requirements for entering into universities and above all, the resignation of the President.

Truly speaking the last one is disturbing. It appears that Macron leaving office will not solve the current crisis. To survive the European project, Macron needs help, not scorn. A young reformist who has promised a “European Renaissance” is struggling to save his country from populists.

And each passing day, his country is passing on to become the “Sick Man of Europe”. It is indeed disheartening to note that the Gilet Jones have disfigured the statue of Marianne, the French Republic’s symbol. What does all mean?

Simply put, what the protesters want is that Macron must give in. Bring an immediate end to the existing unjust taxes, make the elite pay, increase the level of income and let the poor and the middle classes come out of the tax burden.

Now the question is that whether a leaderless and unstructured movement is strong enough to take on the French President. It is not. Dubbed as the “President of the elite”, Macron might lose more than enough of his political constituency over his social insensitivity.

(The writer is an expert on international affairs)