After 9 weeks of protesting the Yellow Vest Movement shows no sign of slowing. There is still minimal coverage by the mainstream media even after protests have started to spread to every major city in France, across Europe and to the UK.
The entire area around the Arc de Triomphe was controlled by protesters on Saturday.
Riot police have escalated their tactics with multishot teargas launchers and shooting protesters with “non-lethal” rounds at close range resulting in serious injuries and bleeding (NSFW BLOOD).
This person was surrounded and beaten by police.
Hit with a baton for recording an arrest.
Plainclothes police got kicked out of a group of protesters. Here’s a picture of another group of them holding a street.
Now police are patrolling with G36 assault rifles against unarmed civilians. We have almost reached a tipping point.
If you want to see more coverage of the protests as they continue to spread search “#YellowVests” on Twitter and sort by ‘Latest’.
Wikipedia has a decent overview.
The yellow vests movement is a populist, grassroots political movement for economic justice that began in France in 2018. The movement is motivated by rising fuel prices, high cost of living, and claims that a disproportionate burden of the government’s tax reforms were falling on the working and middle classes, especially in rural and peri-urban areas. The protesters have called for lower fuel taxes, reintroduction of the solidarity tax on wealth, a minimum wage increase, and Emmanuel Macron’s resignation as President of France. The movement spans the political spectrum.
The protests have involved demonstrations and the blocking of roads and fuel depots. Some of the protests developed into major riots, described as the most violent since those of May 1968. Yellow vests were chosen as a symbol because, since 2008, a law had required all French motorists to have high-visibility vests in their vehicles when driving. As a result, reflective vests had become widely available and inexpensive.
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