Act X of the Yellow Vests – now it’s like a TV series, every Saturday we get a new episode – has shown that this popular spontaneity, which is the backbone of the movement and its core, still has energy, even if a few dozen demonstrators in France and a few hundred in Nice do not constitute “the people speaking out.”
It is certain that a minority, a small statistical minority, has formed and organized, refusing to give up expressing themselves, even if they fail to convince with the quality of their arguments.
In their approach, one sees more emotion than reasoning. Their culture is one of excess, the romantic self of those who want to exist and shout it aloud.
And then there is violence, which is not only the work of rioters. While the Yellow Vests do not glorify violence, they legitimize it. The cost is heavy economically (over 2 billion euros according to official calculations) and morally because public opinion overwhelmingly rejects it.
There will probably be an Act XI and then more to follow. The question remains: will this continue indefinitely?
