After intense weeks of demonstrations in different cities in France in which high school students gathered to demand an improvement in educational conditions in schools, this Saturday, October 17, thousands of protesters are expected to take to the streets again. However, they will not be alone. Unions from different sectors will join together and those known as ‘yellow vests’.
The mobilization that will take place this Saturday in Paris has been called in recent days through social networks under a call titled “Yellow and Young”, receiving the support of different student organizations, climate activists, workers’ unions and the agricultural union Peasant Confederation. All with the aim of march against the rising cost of life in the country.
As explained by the leader of the CGT union, Sophie Binet, to the media “Swissinfo”, what they are seeking with this demonstration is to ask the government that “it must go look for the money where it is, in the pockets of the rentiers, of the big companies.” A message that has generated approximately 500 actions and 90 rallies throughout the country. Therefore, the Ministry of the Interior hopes that they will mobilize. between 70,000 and 140,000 protesters.
But who are the yellow vests?
Although those who have been taking to the streets of France these days have been the unions and high school students, the so-called ‘yellow vests’ have also decided to respond to the call launched by the different organizations. Due to this, it is not surprising that the authorities have prepared for a panorama similar to the protests that took place from October 2018.
As at present, those mobilizations were called by social networks, where calls were launched to the population to protest the announcement of an ecological tax that would make fuel more expensive that President Emmanuel Macron proposed for 2019. The response was massive and gave rise to large waves of protesters, some with their characteristic yellow vests or ‘gilets jaunes’, who occupied the streets of the main French cities every Saturday.
Although the movement emerged in a peaceful and decentralized manner, it soon began to lead to violent clashes, riots and street barricades. Which led the police to use tear gas, water cannons and even anti-riot weapons, which left a high number of people arrested and injured. Despite this, it was these protests that led Macron to abandon his attempt to raise taxes to fuels.
Why are they demonstrating this time?
These episodes became an essential part of the modern history of the French-speaking country, leaving images of burning cars, anti-government graffiti on the Arc de Triomphe or clashes with the police. That is why, to prevent these altercations from being repeated, the French Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez, has authorized the use of stun grenades during the demonstrations this Saturday, although they can only be used in the event that “the situation leads to urban violence or riots“, he explained for France 2.
Well, both calls are not only similar in their origin, social networks, but also in the reason behind the demonstrations. In this case, high school students, yellow vests, VTC drivers, taxi drivers and farmers are expected to march to protest in the face of rising energy pricesinflation and budget cuts related to public spending and pension or healthcare reforms.
Specifically, the French Parliament is debating the budgets for 2027, which includes the possibility of redirect 32% of the money that was going to be allocated to the education system to cover the pensions of public officials. In addition, cuts of approximately 54,000 million euros and the increase in different taxes with the aim of facing a debt of 119% of GDP.