The yellow vests took to the streets this Saturday to demonstrate

They were around 4,700 throughout the country, including 2,000 in Paris, according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior.

Against the pension reform, the 49-3, the rise in energy bills, fuel, inflation, global warming … The demands were numerous this Saturday in the processions of yellow vests.

Four years after the start of their massive mobilization, the Yellow Vests are back on the streets to protest against the government’s social reforms.

France in the space of a few months has become a real pressure cooker. The pension reform, the decline in purchasing power, the impression that on the side of the leaders, it does not print… Many French people do not see the end of the inflationary tunnel.

“There has been a 12% increase in food prices in one year. On certain product categories, we can even go up to 30%. And then there are energy-related products, so heating and travel. So these are the difficulties that actually change the daily life of a very large majority of French people”, explains Sandra Hoibian, director general Research Center for the Study and Observation of Living Conditions (Crédoc) .

“We are at 70% of the population today who say they have had to review their lifestyles in relation to this inflationary context,” she adds. Studies carried out by Crédoc show that the people most affected are young people, people on low incomes but also those from the middle classes, hit hardest by the rise in prices.

“The feeling of vulnerability has increased because the slightest glitch can push families into poverty. So we really have a weakening of the French population. There is no longer really any budgetary room for maneuver”, confides the specialist . “Housing prices have already been very high for twenty years and inflation has been added to that, after two years of Covid-19. In short, there is great fatigue”, concludes Sandra Hoibian, general manager. Research center for the study and observation of living conditions (Crédoc).

This protester hopes for a massive return of the movement. Some lit yellow smoke bombs at the meeting place. It could be the start of a month of social protest. The yellow vests are therefore making their comeback today. For one of the organizers of the rally of the day, “it is a question of bringing together workers, unionized or not, the unemployed, the pensioners to organize a collective struggle in this year 2023, in order to preserve the social rights for which the older generations fought”.

The year 2023 will bring yellow vests, the unemployed and retirees back to the streets, if prices tend to climb up to 30% as expected.

More than 70% of the population will have to survive after inflation sets in, due to massive increases in energy, fuel and gas, but also food and housing, as well as the reforms imposed in 49 -3.

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Gabriel MIHAI

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