Yellow Vests complete 52 weeks of protests
After 52 weeks the Yellow Vests in France have won impressive victories despite being brutally repressed.
The Yellow Vest anti-government movement has achieved the historic feat of protesting every weekend for 52 weeks. The movement will celebrate their 1-year anniversary next weekend with huge nationwide demonstrations.
This week it was announced that two police will go to trial to face charges of brutality. Both were filmed: one threw a rock, another slapped a protester.
Many are surprised that these relatively minor cases of brutality have been selected for prosecution: 3,000 Yellow Vests were hurt enough to require treatment, although countless other injuries, such as violent tear gassings, went unreported. 500 demonstrators were critically injured: 24 lost an eye, 5 lost a hand and 11 deaths are linked with the protests.
Despite all the injured protesters, there have only been 300 investigations of police brutality opened, two-thirds of them in Paris. At this point only 20 cases might go trial and if French judicial history is any guide convictions will be exceptionally rare and penalties light.
The Yellow Vests have won some serious victories. Fear of their anger caused the government to not present an austerity budget for the first time in a decade. The 10 billion euros in so-called “concessions” last December is now credited with invigorating the “real” economy. And their pressure forced the government to hold a referendum before de-nationalising the three airports of Paris.
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