France in a state of exception: For weeks, several Thousand people are demonstrating all over the country. It comes to social inequality? Also an issue in Germany. But here, the streets remain empty. Why?
Cars burning, shops looted and shop Windows smashed, For four weeks, people in France will go to the barricades. On the weekend of civil war threaten in Paris and similar acts of violence. The country is bracing itself with a massive police presence. The “Yellow West” demonstrate against a planned tax increases on petrol and Diesel, against the reform policy of the government, against social injustice. Also in Germany there are Calls for more justice, but they are not nearly as loud and clear as in France. What it is, explains Prof. Dr. Sabrina Zajak by the Board of Directors of the Institute for Protest and movement research, in an Interview with DW.
DW: In France, the protests of the so-called “Yellow vests”. What exactly is happening there?
The Protest in France has something to do with the very specific country context. To do this, the centralized and semi on the one hand and-presidential System in France, where the people at the local level beyond elections, very few opportunities for participation. That is when resentment does not stagnate, then he is discharged, often in the Form of large demonstrations, the violent or disruptive elements. Which has a long Tradition in France, that is to say, the thought and the vocabulary of Revolution will be quickly taken up. In this way, the mobilization, the immediate reaction of the President often follows. The larger the is, the more promising it seems to be.
In Germany, the home of the diesel fraud, not a diesel driver on the road. In France, the increase in the Diesel tax sufficient, to radical protests trigger. How do you explain this difference?
Sabrina Zajak: The spark will not skip to Germany
For one, it’s the specifics of the political system, and on the other, there are urban-rural differences are particularly pronounced. On the one hand there is the socially-privileged, cosmopolitan, eco-liberal Parisian elite, on the other hand, the people who feel left behind. Social inequality plays a large role. And gasoline is an important factor: It’s not the Parisians who are dependent on the car, but the rural or middle urban population, the needs of your car. And the issues of protest have expanded: It comes to social inequality, to the “Égalité” to income inequality. Roughly speaking: the social question.
The French resistance heater, they are said casually, more to the revolt of the trimmed than the Germans?
If we look at, as it is today in Germany is demonstrated, then we see that the protest are also quite happy. But it is a different shape and a different culture of protest. We have many large demonstrations in Germany, for example, the #indivisible Demonstration a few weeks ago, with over 250,000 participants. But these large-scale demonstrations tend to be very peaceful. It is also illegitimate, of violence in the public space to exercise. The organizers know that they would lose their support in the population very quickly. In France, however, you don’t see in the polls that the people are in favour of violence, but you advocate the concerns and that is that this type of mobilization will be contributed to the fact that the topics advocated in the population. In Germany, we had the G20 protests, which were peaceful. But there were some that adopted violent forms, and all your concerns have been delegitimized as a result. This is a different logic and a different dynamic.
Many Europeans ask themselves the same questions, as at the beginning of the political movement Marche En, the President of Macron and a half years, founded and helped him into the office. At that time, the Unorganized movement was his trump card, and now it seems to him to be fatal.
En Marche was never a real grassroots movement. You cannot organise from above, a movement from below. It’s a very different Milieu from the Macron is coming, and now he encounters a wide variety of areas in front of the head. And since many French people feel greatly offended, when he speaks disparagingly about workers. The encounters rejection.
Could skip the spark of protest to Germany?
I don’t think in this Form. There is often a transnationalization of protest. There are waves, the coat of arms in the whole of Europe and even beyond Europe, in the world cross: think of the globalisation-critical movement such as Occupy. As you can see, that the spread across national borders. I don’t think, in this case, it has the potential due to the country-specific context in France. Actually, one might suspect that the symbolism of the yellow West – because everyone has a car – very fast transfer. Add to that, there are also dissatisfaction in many other European countries. And yet, I don’t think that these protests will spread.
The interview was conducted by Stefan Dege.