“Prices are rising, we are back to the starting point”

A gray station wagon rushes over the roundabout and stops at the feet of a handful of “yellow vests”. The driver lowers the window, passenger side. Slight float outside the cabin: is it a sympathizer or an exasperated neighbor? “I didn’t know you would be here today!” exclaims the man behind the wheel, perky. Phew. A few minutes later, after a return trip to the supermarket, he drops off a pack of beers and something to snack on the roundabout. The gesture is appreciated, but the alcohol is quickly concealed in a car trunk, so as not to give the police a reason to evict the demonstrators.

Since October 9, 2021, and a few weeks before the third anniversary of act 1 of the movement, the Ashton roundabout, in Chaumont (Haute-Marne), is again invested every Saturday by a handful of “yellow vests”. A mobilization beyond measure with the conquest of winter 2018-2019. At the time, several hundred demonstrators were adorned with fluorescent lights in this city of 22,000 inhabitants, marked by an exodus since the 1950s, for lack of jobs. It is on this small patch of grass, overlooking the roundabout, that the “yellow vests” took turns all week. A must for many vehicles, since it is the last stopover in Chaumont on the road leading further south, towards Dijon (Côte-d’Or), Vesoul (Haute-Saône) or Besançon (Doubs).

Between the Lidl, the Burger King and the pink building bars, motorists were alpacaed here. This is also where we drank a cafe, which we were eating with food left by each other. Or that we simply exchanged under the red barnum loaned by the CGT-Retraités. At the time, we had to dismantle the tent every evening, store it in a room, to avoid its destruction during the night by the police, recalls with a smile Marie-France, a retired nursing assistant of 69 years old who no longer count the days spent here.

“There was no policy on roundabouts: we danced country and madison. I saw people from the Rassemblement national (RN) and La France insoumise having a coffee together”, engages, nostalgic, Francine, former worker of 64 years, herself inserted in the RN, then in the Patriots.

In addition to “Ashton”, the mobilization was installed in 2018 on the roundabouts of the surrounding municipalities: Saint-Dizier, Nogent, Montigny-le-Roi … But, above all, at Semoutiers toll. From the cabin open even at night, the “yellow vests” then organized “barrier lifted” operations, blockades and filter dams. The first few months, they even went to Paris on certain Saturdays. Of these days started in the early morning, we came back with the feeling of a done duty, but also “The fear of his life” after confronting tear gas from the police.

Here as elsewhere, however, months have passed and the movement is exhausted. Ashton roundabout was only held every other day, then on weekends; the Semoutiers toll hut has disappeared and, in the processions, the yellow vests have become scarce. “One day, I showed up at a demonstration in Chaumont, there were four clampins and one pelé”, recalls Valérie, 48 years old, including twenty-five of the factory at the “three-eight”. “We sounded like puppets, I surrendered.”

Vincent, a young 25-year-old home help and “yellow vest” from the start, notes for his part “malfunctions” : “The permanent alcoholization of some demonstrators” which gives a bad image of the movement, but especially, according to him, the violence in manifestation. “I saw ‘yellow vests’ throwing snowballs with cobblestones inside at the police”, regrets this volunteer firefighter. During 2019, he ended up “to throw [son] vest in the trash “.

“The episode of the demonstration at the Arc de triomphe in Paris marked a before and after”, also considers Yannick, 33 years old, one of the main figures of the Chaumontais protest. “It gave us a violent image that prevailed over everything else in the media. We lost the support of the population.”, estimates this caregiver, suspended since mid-September for non-presentation of the health pass. Little by little, family life and financial necessities also brought back many “yellow vests” at home.

“When you fined yourself 135 euros every Saturday while you are struggling with the high cost of living, you end up not coming.”

Yannick, “yellow vest”

to franceinfo

Tensions also appeared, over the course of the acts, between demonstrators more and more politicized, and divided on the next stage. Was it necessary to create a political movement, to stand for election? Should we join an existing party, and if so, which one? Should the initial demands be broadened? Was violence a legitimate course of action? “We wanted to elect representatives to set up direct democracy, but it was complicated, there was a very local withdrawal of each group of ‘yellow vests’, relates Yannick. It’s hard to talk to the roundabout next door when you don’t have the same vision. “

Above all, the “fear of the gendarme” has infiltrated the ranks. Ludovic, a 44-year-old writer and computer scientist, organizer of several demonstrations around Chaumont, was imprisoned for five and a half months in 2019 for “poems” posted on Facebook, in which he said in particular to look for a gun to kill a police officer. “I am anti-clicks, but I am not for violence”, retorts the“anarchist”, ensuring that he made use of his artistic license. Since his incarceration, he has “withdrawn from political action, for fear of spoiling [sa] life”.

Finally, the start of the health crisis in 2020 brought the movement to a halt. “Many did not return afterwards”, regrets Marie-France, still wearing her waistcoat. “I am resigned”, confesses Valérie, absent from roundabouts since the start of the pandemic.

“Why would I go and perform when everyone else has stopped?”

Valérie, ex- “yellow vest”

to franceinfo

Even the most loyal protesters have often resorted to “breaks of a few months”, explains in her hoarse voice Nora, a retired milling machine and waitress in a kebab in Nogent, a neighboring village. “After a while my body and head couldn’t keep up, I was pissed off all the time… When you’re in a fight, you just think about it.”

Today, the local movement has transformed, recognize all those who took part. In addition to the economic and political demands linked to purchasing power and the popular initiative referendum (RIC), there was the fight against the law on “global security” and “anti-breakers”, but also opposition to the health pass. The latter is perceived by the demonstrators as the continuity of the “authoritarian drift” of the government. A position that is not unanimous among the former “yellow vests”. “I got involved in the hope of making things happen for the purchasing power of the French. Today, this movement is ‘anti-everything’: anti-system, anti-government, anti-health pass, anti-vaccine …” so regrets Vincent.

The twenty or so “yellow vests” still mobilized in the town have found a nickname: “the deters” (for “determined”). While some still go to roundabouts, most now prefer to demonstrate in the large towns of the department. Yannick has been camping every afternoon since the end of October under the windows of the prefecture. Objective: to be visible to local elected officials, but also to residents, in order to indicate that the demands of the “yellow vests” have not found an answer. “The prices are increasing, we are back to the starting point”, Nora sighs, purple hair held in place by a leopard patterned plastic clip. “I’m mad, I’m furious. If I were thirty years younger, I would be with the black bloc! “

At the time of the assessment, a few days before the three years of the movement, the “yellow vests” cite few concrete measures likely to extinguish their anger. They rejoice more at “citizen awakening” enabled by mobilization, which for many has been a political apprenticeship. What about the revaluation of the activity premium, of the “tariff shield” against the increase in gas or the energy check of 100 euros announced by the executive? From “scoops” which aim to “buy social peace” they answer, including most of those who no longer demonstrate.

This is the paradox: if many of them have stopped activating out of weariness, fear of violence and fines or lack of time, few deny the movement. Like Valérie, who did not have enough to fill her fuel tank this winter, they are still feeling fed up with the early days. And promise that they will have “always the yellow heart “.