A winter of discontent

France grapples with good economics versus good politics

There is hatred in the air in the city of love as millions pour into key locations of Paris to protest falling living standards and “monetised slavery”. Indeed, Paris is not alone. Protesters forming the so-called Yellow Vests movement have made a spectacle across key French cities such as Marseille, Nice, Nantes, Bordeaux and Toulouse. This is the fourth weekend of such protests, many of which turned quite violent and involved widespread rioting, loot and thuggery in prominent locations. Indeed, many protests have also been peaceful but close to 90,000 security forces were deployed across the country to control the situation. Over 1,000 protesters have been arrested, 200-odd have been injured, and at least four people have died in the escalating violence. 

The movement has now inspired similar protests in neighbouring Belgium and the Netherlands. But more than anyone else, it is the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who is facing his toughest test yet. Till a few months ago, he was seen as a confident liberal who believed that good economics was good politics and who was willing to take on the daunting task of reform. But not anymore.

The immediate trigger for the Yellow Vests movement was a hike in fuel tax, which is set to start in January. The tax wasn’t imposed by Mr Macron and was part of automatic hikes since 2014. But the latest one appears to have been the tipping point for the bulk of the public living in the rural and suburban areas who use cars to commute. Murmurs of discontent started in May this year and by October the disapproval of higher taxes reached a crescendo, as social media platforms such as Facebook became the vehicle of commentary. By November people were on the streets. As many a protester has said, Paris was targeted to ensure that the government listened. Last week, shaken by weeks of unending protests, Mr Macron’s government did suspend the fuel tax hike on the grounds that “no tax warrants putting the unity of the nation in danger”. But the move was perhaps too little too late. By that time, the protests had acquired a character of their own. As one protester said: ‘‘Our demands are much bigger than this moratorium… It’s about the whole baguette, not just the crumbs.”

The French working class wants a better distribution of wealth and an improvement in the standard of living. The trouble is there is no shortcut to achieve this, especially as Mr Macron has unveiled several reforms that have tried to bring down the deficit within the 3 per cent of gross domestic product range for the first time since 2007. Some of his other reforms involve pruning the influence of unions and instituting long-pending labour reforms, trimming the funds for village mayors, and an ambitious plan to move away from the use of fossil fuels. Mr Macron has also cut taxes on wealth in order to incentivise its creation but there has been little by way of help for the more needy. As a result, far from being possibly the leader of Europe, Mr Macron is struggling to retain his presidency with more and more voters calling him an elitist and “a president of the rich”. It is tough to predict how things may pan out since the movement is essentially leaderless and without any cogent agenda, but the worrying sign is that it is now acquiring a strong anti-immigrant strand as well.