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It all started with a petition launched on the Internet by Priscillia Ludosky, manager of an online cosmetics store, in May 2018. The challenge is the price of fuel. In November, there are more than one million signatories. With such a mobilization on the web, a first meeting is organized throughout France on November 17. And as it’s about gasoline, the protesters will express their anger on the roads and roundabouts, wearing the safety vest which is mandatory in any French vehicle: the yellow vest. I didn’t know what to think of this movement, nor what form it would take. From the first day on, I was surprised by its extent and by the people took to the streets. For this first act, I went to the north of Amiens: there were young and old, leftists and fachos, retired, families, farmers, unemployed, parents of disabled children, middle classes… French people who aren’t happy, who, for once, would express their anger alone, without flags, trade unions or political parties. Alone but numerous.

Starting from the second act on November 24, 2018, Paris and its ”most beautiful avenue of the world”, the Champs-Élysées, became the major places of expression of the revolt. Epicenter of political power, of money, of the ruling, from Saturday to Saturday the capital suffered the violence of the hassled by difficult ends of months. Burned cars, ransacked luxury shops, the targeted Arc de Triomphe, a ripped ministry. Often the cobblestones fly forward, and there are many to do this. Often, too, the rubber bullets fired by the police are staring and mutilating. There are thousands of injured people counted. The police replicate more and more hard and some yellow vests become radicalized. A social movement rarely lasts so long. It hardly ever reaches such intensity. And it never comes from nowhere. Politicians, trade unionists, columnists, sociologists of all kinds were overtaken by this yellow wave. It escapes their traditional systems of thought and analysis. In this sense, this movement is new and unique. –

Olivier Coret