Several sites are currently reporting on road blockades in France, which are scheduled to take place on November 17th. We took a closer look at the situation.
There has been a protest movement in France for some time called “ gilets jaunes ” (“yellow vests”). Aside from trade unions and political parties, pages and groups have emerged on social networks, for example on Facebook , which demonstrate against the increase in petrol prices in France and want to take active action against it.
The model for this movement appears to be the “bonnets rouges” (“red hats”), whose protests in 2014 resulted in the eco-tax for heavy transport being suspended in France. However, while the “bonnets rouges” protests were concentrated in Brittany in western France, the “gilets jaunes” want to paralyze traffic throughout France.
Thierry Paul Valette posted a video about the upcoming protests on Facebook:
He wrote a public message to Emmanuel Macron (here excerpts translated into German):
“Message to Emmanuel Macron, gravedigger of the Republic
Today oil has lost 6%, a decline of 27% in 5 weeks.
The French are not idiots and don't trust you anymore!!!!
And again, if there was only the problem with gasoline... taxes everywhere + increase in taxes + reduced pensions etc. The drop in gasoline is just a drop in the bucket.The intimidation of Interior Minister Christophe Castaner will not change anything; Bolshevik methods have no place in a democracy.
We won't let you turn yellow vests into red vests on Saturday!!!!
And I ask the police to carry out a national strike in solidarity!”
also formulates the campaign in more detail on his blog The question everyone is now asking is: Will there be a major traffic blockage ?
French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said the protest movement was "irrational" and promised police would intervene if roadblocks prevented emergency services from getting through.
Thierry Paul Valette, however, wrote that one should not be impressed by the Interior Minister's “attempts at intimidation”.
What threatens protesters?
According to the law of June 12, 2003, obstructing traffic is a criminal offense punishable by two years in prison and a fine of 4,500 euros Those in debt also risk having their driving license suspended for a maximum of three years and also having their vehicle confiscated.
Another problem is that this is only a request from the various sides, not demonstrations registered in the prefecture.
Demonstrations are usually not banned as long as they do not endanger public order or hinder freedom of movement.
In this case, the demonstrations were only actually registered in a few places; in these cases the authorities can approach the demonstration leaders if there are problems.
However, if there are traffic obstructions that, for example, prevent an ambulance from passing, then in most cases no demonstration leader can be held responsible; the private individuals who then block the road will be held liable. It is then not possible to invoke the right to demonstrate because they were not registered.
Is traffic chaos to be expected?
This is very difficult to assess. On the published map , all points are marked where there may (!) be traffic disruptions, which is pretty much all the roads in France.
On the other hand, it is “only” a call on Facebook, and the blockades are only directly organized in very few places. In the vast majority of cases, people are simply asked to block those roads, but the responsibility then falls on the blocking road users themselves.
There are a lot of commitments on Facebook, but we all know what it looks like in reality: very few people follow a call. The incentive is even less great if people know that they could be prosecuted for doing so.
So it's entirely conceivable that many people will drive slower than usual in protest (that's not forbidden), but complete nationwide blockades are unlikely from the current perspective, but not impossible in isolated cases.
Ultimately, we now have to wait and see whether and what will happen in France on November 17th. Nothing is certain yet, but the authorities are preparing to clear any blockages that arise as quickly as possible.
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