A union of French nurses has announced its support for the ongoing gilets jaunes movement.
Many of France’s 660,000 nurses will join the blockades spanning the country in continuing protest against rising fuel costs – some have already attended protests organised by the gilets jaunes movement over the weekend. French nurses, particularly independent members of the profession who travel to patients’ homes to provide care, do not receive fuel allowances for their journeys.
The gilets jaunes movement stems from widespread frustration with French President Emmanuel Macron’s fuel policies, which will see tax on diesel rise by 6.5 cents per litre in 2019. Petrol tax will rise by 2.9 cents. Protesters say the increased price disproportionately effects low income and rural drivers, which is perceived to be part of a greater theme on the part of Macron’s government of benefiting the wealthy at the expense of the working classes.
Individual protesters, ostensibly part of the gilets jaunes movement but possibly just using the protests as an excuse for far right violence, have engaged in racist and anti-Semitic attacks, while a gay couple in Bourg-en-Bresse were assaulted by homophobic demonstrators. Interior Minister Christophe Castaner condemned the “aggressivity and change in behaviour of demonstrators…systematically confronting security forces.”
So far 528 civilians and 92 police officers had been injured in the protests, with one woman killed in the Savoie region on Saturday when a driver “panicked” and ran her over – protesters are raising money online for the family of the dead woman. Some protesters have engaged in scuffles with police, motorists and in a few cases each other. Two lorry drivers were detained on Sunday night after attempting to force their way through members of the gilets jaunes movement.
Police figures show around 13,000 protesters across 300 locations on Monday. While this is a drop in numbers since Saturday’s main protest, which saw turnout of nearly 300,000 nationwide, at least 35 motorways and 18 motorway slip roads across France remain partially or completely blocked; with dozens of minor roads also barricaded. There is a rising call for the gilets jaunes movement to continue demonstrating, with more protests potentially planned for this Saturday, November 24.
