France's
"yellow vest" protests against fuel prices weren't
organized by the Left. But the fight to widen their demands is key to
blocking the growth of Marine Le Pen's far right.
by
Aurélie Dianara
Part
2 - Which People?
The
people who are mobilizing in the gilets jaunes movement are
the people of peripheral France: those who come not from large urban
centers but from smaller towns and rural areas. A part of the country
that is not usually seen is today rising up. To make itself visible
it wears the flourescent yellow vest, a reflective garment every
driver has to keep in their car. They came together, and organized,
on social media — a few weeks ago groups started being created for
each département (small administrative units of France) — and
sometimes they held a few preparatory meetings before they took to
the streets on dawn of Saturday 17.
The
gilets jaunes came together to protest against the increase in
fuel prices. And with good reason: this year the price of diesel has
increased by 23 percent and petrol by 14 percent due to the jump in
the price of a barrel of oil. In addition, the government has
recently announced that diesel and petrol prices will increase
further — by four and seven cents a liter respectively —
presenting this as a means of financing an ecologically oriented
energy transition.
This
announcement has, unsurprisingly, caused great discontent among the
lower and middle classes, especially those of peripheral France most
affected by transport costs. For these citizens, who travel many
miles every day by car, fuel prices can seriously cut into their
incomes.
In terms
of their demands, the gilets jaunes first of all want to get rid of
this “carbon tax.” But behind the anger there is something else.
As they and their supporters have repeated over the last two weeks,
to justify their actions (which have stirred no little upset), the
fuel price issue is something of a “straw that broke the camel’s
back.”
The
voices heard in recent days express a clear feeling of exasperation,
the sense of being the objects of the contempt of (and exclusion by)
a political class which they generally reject. Many call for the
government and President Emmanuel Macron to resign. They continually
insist on his low support and weak electoral legitimacy: after all,
in last year’s presidential contest he only scored 24 percent in
the first round, and turnout in the runoff hit historic low. “Macron,
resign!” is a slogan that thunders through the provinces and along
the Champs Elysées.
This
feeling of exasperation is the result of years of fiscal and social
policies that have gradually strangled the low and middle classes,
including in terms of the tax take. Immediately upon reaching
office, Macron abolished the Solidarity Wealth Tax (ISF), giving €4
billion to the richest; and has strengthened the Tax Credit for
Solidarity and Employment (CICE), a tax cut and exemption program
transferring €41 billion a year to French companies, including
multinationals. Shortly afterwards, with the 2018 budget bill, Macron
established a flat tax that allowed a lowering of taxation on
capital, handing another €10 billion to the richest.
At the
same time, the government has increased the General Social
Contribution (CSG) income tax to be paid by pensioners, while
pensions themselves have ceased to be indexed to inflation (and thus
to retirees’ ability to buy consumer goods). It has got rid of the
subsidized contracts (which allowed large numbers to work on
contracts partly financed by public bodies) and lowered by five euros
a month the amount of housing contributions (APL) for the most
disadvantaged.
As if
that were not enough, the new “carbon tax” will weigh five
times heavier on the budgets of the middle classes than on that of
the upper classes. Yet the government has taken no steps to
counterbalance this obviously unequal treatment — for example by
giving aid to the families on the most modest budgets.
Building
on policies already implemented by presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and
François Hollande, the effect has been to produce a further massive
increase in inequalities. Over the last two decades the largest
fortunes in France have increased tenfold, while according to a
recent study by OFCE and INSEE, French families’ average
“purchasing power” has fallen by €440 a year since the 2008
crisis. In this context, it is unsurprising that a sense of injustice
and humiliation has spread, as well as that of an arrogant “president
of the rich.”
This has
exacerbated a divide between the people and the privileged elite
represented by the president, aggravated by a series of recent
financial scandals enveloping recent heads of state. If
governments have continued to repeat that tax breaks for the richest
and big companies would stimulate investment, the figures tell us
otherwise: we are still waiting for the million jobs promised by
Hollande and his then-adviser Macron when CICE was launched in 2012.
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