Opinion: France’s yellow vests highlight a gap between policy and how it’s perceived
By Anne Applebaum Anne Applebaum Columnist focusing on national politics and foreign policy Email Bio Follow Columnist March 29 at 3:45 PM At the national level, support is dropping. More than half of French people now say they want the gilets jaunes — the yellow-jacketed protesters with a record of violence — to stop their demonstrations.
From the beginning, the movement found it hard to articulate what, exactly, it opposed. At first, it was the gasoline tax, but protests continued after that was lifted. Later, protesters told journalists, or anyone who asked, that they felt discriminated against because they paid taxes but, because they lived in the provinces, received no social services.
The puzzle doesn’t end there. Like many other places, France does have big gaps between the rich and the poor. But unlike the United States or Britain, the French system makes major efforts to address inequality. In fact, France already has the most redistributive welfare system in Europe. To put it differently, more money flows from rich to poor in France than it does even in Sweden. Yet this fact is also either unknown or unappreciated.
The saga of the gilets jaunes suggests that perceptions of policy are sometimes more important than policy — or, perhaps, that perceptions are nowadays molded by other things. Macron’s perceived contempt for the poor may be a more important source of discontent than high taxes. The low status of nurses and teachers might make people feel, legitimately, that these professions are not valued.
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