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Act X Of Yellow Vest Protests Reject Macron’s National Dialogue

  • By Kevin Zeese, Popular Resistance

The turnout for Act X of the Yellow Vest protests held steady on January 19, 2019.

Listen to our interview about the Yellow Vest movement with Richard Greeman in Montpelier, France.

The national debate announced by President Macron did not satisfy the movement as people turned out in the tens of thousands this weekend. The interior ministry says 84,000 people came out for Act 10 of the Yellow Vest protests, slightly higher than last week. Once again police used tear gas, violence and water cannons to try to control the crowds.

RFI reports “We’ve been out on the street talking to some of the Yellow Vests to see if President Macron’s Great National Debate has convinced people the government will listen to their complaints. The overwhelming response: ‘Non.'”

Reuters reports:

For the tenth Saturday in a row, Yellow Vest demonstrators gathered in Paris to express their anger with French President Emmanuel Macron’s reforms. Last Sunday, the president wrote an open letter to the French in which he called for a two-month “grand debate,” hoping to defuse tensions that have paralyzed Paris and other cities as demonstrators took over the streets. If it is up to them, the movement won’t stop anytime soon.

“It’s not enough. This so-called “Grand Débat” is nonsense,” says Christof, one of hundreds of Yellow Vest demonstrators who gathered this Saturday in front of the Dome des Invalides in central Paris.

Macron undermined the national dialogue by limiting the scope of the debate so it does not include some of the neoliberal policies he has put in place and by talking down to the French people saying they were lazy and had forgotten how to work. Christof went on to say “These guys don’t understand who the people are. In each speech, he says something wrong. That we are lazy. That we don’t work. There’s always something bad for the people. That’s one of the reasons why we are here.”

RT reported the nation-wide debate on the crisis announced by President Emmanuel Macron so far did little to change the people’s moods. In this video, they show the protest on the tenth week in Paris and describe Macron’ varying position in response to Yellow Vest protests.

In Paris, Gilets Jaunes organizers called on its members to bring flowers or candles to today’s marches to remember those who have died or been hurt. Ten people have been killed since the first march on 17 November, and more than 2,000 hurt, including protesters and police.

Protesters gathering at the Esplanade des Invalides in central Paris denouncing the Great Debate as a scam. 

In Paris, the Yellow Vest occupied the Champs-Elysees and the Esplanade des Invalides near the nation’s parliament. People were seen waving national flags and setting off firecrackers.

According to the latest surveys, 56% of French people support the Yellow Vests. 70% think President Macron’s Great National Debate will not satisfy their grievances.

Some French protesters carried placards, reading “Freedom, Equality, Flash-Ball,” referring to the type of ‘less-lethal’ guns used by law enforcement to quell the protests. The placards also contained pictures of Marianne – a national symbol of liberty – with an injured eye. That was apparently an allusion to a high-publicized incident in December when a young woman was hit in the eye by a projectile the activists say was fired from a Flash-Ball.

Freedom, Equality, Flashball, Yellow Vest protesters, January 19, 2019. By Philippe Lopez for AFP.

The Yellow Vest processions took place in Caen and Rouen, both in northern France. The rallies were also held in Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Toulon, Dijon, Beziers, Avignon, among other places.

Armored police cars were filmed moving through the southern city of Toulouse where 10,000 people took to the streets. There were scuffles between the police and the Yellow Vests, with at least ten people detained.

A major rally also took place in Bordeaux, with the attendance between 4,000 to 6,000 demonstrators.

The self-declared “media of the Yellow Vests”, Vécu, has shared an event for a women’s gilets jaunes march tomorrow, Sunday 20 January, in the capital. The rally is to begin at 11:00 am on the Champ de Mars, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

There continue to be examples of the Yellow Vest movement in other countries.

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