France’s protest movement is observed in the Arab world. In some countries, young people have to motivate similar rallies. The governments of the Region are nervous.
Paris? Marseille? Lyon? This is Basra in southern Iraq on 4. December 2018
Yellow West is strictly prohibited. You are not allowed to carry and sell. Because Yellow, which is also in Egypt for a few days, the color of Protest, opposition, revolt. The movement of the “gilets jaunes”, “yellow West”, whose members are opposed to in France, the tax hike plans of President Macron, you could also put the Egyptians in a protest mood.
In any case, the authorities of the North African country, as a precautionary measure, sent their police officers in the streets of fear – even if you make for the time being, the only Station in the case of those entrepreneurs who earn their money with the sale of professional clothing, not least with the yellow safety vests, which are worn in Egypt in the case of hazardous Work, particularly in road transport.
Police had asked not to sell yellow vests, and more, reported at the beginning of the week the seller from Cairo and Alexandria, the news channel Al-Jazeera. “When we asked why, they replied, these were the commands.” Another seller said that the government’s fear, apparently, a revival of the protests of 2011, inspired by the scenes from France.
In Egypt, memories of the “Arab spring”: the scene from Cairo, 2011
“France has changed,”
In the Arab press, the protests of the French yellow vests will be closely monitored. Although the followers were restricted to social demands, it is said in the London-based “Al-Araby al-jadeed”. The more liberal newspaper to reveal their sympathy for the protesters, clearly, but given the vehemence of the protests: “France has changed, and the Rest of Europe could follow.”
The riots in their own country, the Egyptian, the state of fear among the Newspapers and comment on the protests in France critical. They had been instigated by “hidden hands”, – stated in the newspaper Al-Ahram. The message is clear: As is currently the case in France, the uprisings in Egypt were of 2011, the work of foreign saboteurs. The legitimacy of the former rebellions, and so the unspoken conclusion is, therefore, doubtful.
Social concerns with political explosive force
The Egyptian authorities were alarmed mainly because of the protests in France, says Egyptian political scientist Ammar Ali Hassan in an interview with DW: Both movements arose to be the yellow the West, in France, as of the year 2011 in Egypt – outside the traditional political organizations. Ali Hassan sees a further Parallel: “Both of them have no fixed, identifiable leadership. And both of them were only social and political demands, to rise to further claims, such as the after the resignation of President Mubarak in 2011 and Macron 2018.” Both had started peacefully, had then become violent.
Anti-tax Protest in Amman, 6 increases:. December 2018
Conversely, at least some of the French protesters fill, for its part, the Arab protest of the year 2011 reminds. “The people want the overthrow of the government”, is to be read in Arabic on a Graffiti on a wall in Paris. Behind this Slogan, the demonstrators gathered in 2011 in various Arab countries.
The role of the Muslim brotherhood
The Egyptian newspaper “Al-Masry al-youm” goes a step further: they suspected the movement of the Muslim brothers in Egypt as a terrorist, and behind the French protests. The Muslim brotherhood, the hand, wanted to start a “European spring”, according to the nature of the “Arab spring” of 2011.
In fact, the Muslim brotherhood had not been idle, says political analyst Ali Hassan: “you have tried to inspire the Egyptians through the French demonstrations, protests in Egypt.” In the process, they have focused primarily on the rising prices.
The attempt remained unsuccessful. But he shows how closely the social and political concerns connected in case of doubt, each other. Social demands, has shown in 2011, can turn under the Hand rapidly in a radical political Agenda.
Protests in Tunisia, Jordan and Iraq
This step did the protesters in Tunisia. Not in yellow, but in red Jackets dressed you have called for the middle of this week for a rally in Tunis. The resentment is also directed against the high living costs, but only. The protesters also unemployment, corruption, and the inefficiency of the authorities: “We are a group of young Tunisians in the lack of credibility and the lack of imagination of the political class,” says a young protester in the channel “Sky News Arabyia”.
Tunisian culture of protest: a Demonstration against the visit of the Saudi crown Prince in November 2018
Also in southern Iraq’s Basra, for months the scene again and again, bursts of social protests, the protesters for several days, yellow the West. Like the Tunisians, they, too, turn against corruption and the deterioration of urban services and job challenge opportunities. Also in Jordan, it already came to the protest rallies.
The demands of Arab protesters, like those of the French are similar, grants to political analyst Ali Hassan. The government responses varied but thoroughly: “in Spite of all the violence, the onset of the French police, was not shot there. Also no protesters were killed. Arrested were soon released, no one was detained without trial for longer, no one is sitting without judgment for months or years in prison.” Also, the French government had sought quickly the conversation with the protesters. “The Arab governments, however, have shown an arrogant and brutal.”