“They weren’t that crazy”

Five years later, what remains of the mobilization of the Yellow Vests? Throughout France, the rumble that arose in the countryside and cities in 2018 sees the date of November 17 as an anniversary. That day, the mobilization was in full swing. Five years have passed.

Céline Chatelard works in the medico-social sector. The fifty-year-old joins the ranks of one of the busiest roundabouts in the south of France, the Gargalon roundabout.

Located north of Fréjus, the place was joined at the height of the protest by more than 600 Yellow Vests. A peaceful occupation. The Yellow Vests of this part of the Var will experience their hour of glory, receive the support of Brigitte Bardot, but will see their “house of the citizens of Gargalon”a makeshift home for some who slept there many, many nights.

Céline Chatelard was one of the departmental figures of the movement. On this date of November 17 – which marked the strongest mobilization of the movement in 2018 with more than 2,000 gatherings – she remembers this year of occupation.

I was at the Gargalan roundabout, in Fréjus, and we occupied it for almost a year, 24 hours a day.

His commitment is still intact, it has extended well beyond. Céline Chatelard feels more concerned than ever. The Yellow Vests acted as a catalyst for her. Above all, he was an aggregator of all the dull anger that some people felt. At issue, already at the time, the price of gasoline (around 1.40 euros per liter compared to nearly 2 euros today), and the strong feeling of not being heard by the entire political class. .

What made you decide to join the Yellow Vests mobilization in 2018?

“I am a home care assistant, specializing in Alzheimer’s disease and disability. I have the difficulties of single parenthood, in the sense that I was alone with my child and with a father who was absent, completely, and financially . I found myself in impossible financial difficulties, because of the failure, in particular of the justice system, and of the state systems which take into account your income, but not your remaining life. I was very angry.”

The Yellow Vests were made to look like people who didn’t work, but I worked 60 hours a week.

“I am not someone who claims […], I demonstrated in my life at 16 years old, and at 53 years old. I integrated myself into this movement, I continued to work. I went there in the evening, on weekends. In this movement there was a real representation of society. There was everything. People who were independent, civil servants… from all professional backgrounds.”

What memories do you have of the mobilization of the Yellow Vests?

“We were very, very repressed. We had 13 people who were taken to court, whose lawyers had to be paid, for trivial things. We were prosecuted, because the Yellow Vests had gone to open the barriers of the “Fréjus hospital. They dismantled them, they weren’t broken. It’s just stupid. Now, you go there, there are two hours free, because there was a trial which cost everyone 1,500 euros in lawyer fees, when in fact, afterwards, local politicians estimated that paying for parking to help your spouse or family at the hospital should have been free.”

People, despite everything, at the moment, are saying to themselves: “the Yellow Vests weren’t that crazy.”

“It’s called repression. By dint of being fined when you go to the roundabout, and the police pass for each car, it was fines of 135 euros, when we were already in difficulty . You have to be motivated, I tell you. Afterwards, people told us ‘you left’. Yes, but come and get repressed with us, you’ll see!”

“This strategy was put in place at the government level. We asked the police to proceed in this way. We must not believe that the police officers who are on the street do these things of their own accord. They have orders. […] During the demonstrations, we met lots of gendarmes, CRS, most of them told us ‘demonstrate, we support you’.

What state of mind do the Yellow Vests feel in today?

“The first day was November 17 (2018, Editor’s note), but we never gave up. My car is still full of yellow vests. The rear deck is Yellow Vest. You shouldn’t believe that this movement stopped, it grew. 5 years ago, people did not understand that we were going out and being so tenacious. If you look closely, at the economic level, At the moment, you have a liter for 2 euros. When we went out, it was 1.45 euros. People are more and more revolted. They no longer dare to go out, because they are afraid of repression. Look purchasing power 5 years ago, and now, the cost of energy is colossal. People don’t have the vest, but they become Yellow Vests, intellectually I mean, because life is much more complicated now than it was before.”

Personally, I had a tax adjustment during the same period. I do not understand why.

“Following that, I ran for municipal and departmental elections. It’s not because we no longer hear about us that we no longer do anything. Until last year, I “was invited by France Télévisions to participate in political broadcasts. It’s not because we are no longer on the roundabout that we have stopped. The movement is growing, in latency, like embers. All it takes is one element, and I guarantee you, it will be even stronger. The people there are saturated.”

“The Yellow Vest movement caused one thing. People were not interested in politics or unions, but it awakened them, and they are getting informed. You believe that when they see of 49.3, doesn’t that revolt people? For the pension reform, have you seen the crowd there was? These are signs that we must observe. The Yellow Vests no longer have it on them, because they are afraid of being reprimanded, but that’s not why we don’t continue to work behind it. Including people who denigrated the movement at the beginning, and who have since joined it.”

Why did the Yellow Vest movement not translate into a political movement?

“We cannot structure ourselves and elect someone if we are against this system. How do you expect us to ‘structure’ ourselves by saying ‘he’ is the leader? Respect for the word of everyone is essential in this movement. I will answer you this way, other Yellow Vests will answer you differently. We must stop accusing us of not being structured, because everyone, at our level, has managed to make a contribution with the means we had. […] From the far left to the extreme, everyone came to ask us, the unions were the same, because we interested them.”

“We have to find other systems to work. We proposed the referendum (the RIC, the popular initiative referendum, which aimed to facilitate consultation of the people, without involving Parliament upstream, editor’s note), but we were told it wasn’t possible, but they don’t want to change the Constitution.”

On November 17 and 18, around a hundred gatherings have been announced online, notably on X – formerly Twitter. In the Var, it is at the town hall of Toulon that the Yellow Vests are to gather, at 8 p.m.

It remains to be seen whether 5 years later, the embers will be rekindled by a large-scale mobilization.