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Yellow vests call for France to hold regular referendums

The 'Yellow Vest' movement has attracted malcontents from across France's political spectrum - Getty Images Europe
The 'Yellow Vest' movement has attracted malcontents from across France's political spectrum - Getty Images Europe

France’s “yellow vest” protesters are demanding the right to hold referendums on new legislation that would overrule parliamentary votes in what they claim would be a “more direct” form of democracy.

Referendums have become a key demand of the movement, which began as a fuel price protest but has now broadened to encompass a range of grievances such as low wages and the high cost of living.

A “citizens’ initiative referendum” would be triggered if 700,000 people signed an online petition supervised by a recognised independent body. In addition to introducing or scrapping legalisation, the popular votes could also be held on international agreements or to oust MPs or other elected officials, including Emmanuel Macron, the unpopular president, who is the target of much of the protesters’ anger.

The “yellow vests” have no single leader, but many protesters manning roadblocks across the country voiced the demand for a new system of government by referendum in interviews with French media yesterday (on Monday).

Grégoire Blanchet, 42, a protester manning a roadblock on the A27 motorway in north-eastern France, said: “We want to govern ourselves.”

The numbers of protesters have dwindled, but hardliners are defying government calls to end the unrest. Many dismissed concessions by Mr Macron, including an increase in the minimum wage and subsidies for low-income families, as token gestures. “This is not enough,” Mr Blanchet said. “We’ll continue this movement until our demands are met in full, not just some little measures that won’t make much difference to our lives.”

Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-Right National Rally, formerly the National Front, backed the call for referendums, as did Jean-Luc Mélenchon, head of the far-Left France Unbowed party. Both pointed out that the demand was in their party manifestos before the emergence of the “yellow vests”.

Ségolène Royal, the former Socialist presidential candidate, environment minister and ex-partner of François Hollande, who was president before Emmanuel Macron, said she supported the demand in principle.

It was also backed by François Bayrou, whose small centrist party Modem was briefly in coalition with Mr Macron’s La République En Marche. “Politics cannot just be the preserve of insiders,” said Mr Bayrou, who served as Mr Macron’s justice minister until his party was embroiled in a corruption scandal.

Mr Macron, whose approval ratings have plunged again since the protests began, has announced town hall meetings across the country in an attempt to increase public involvement in policy-making. But his decision to add immigration policy to the issues to be debated has generated splits within his own party. 

Leftists fear that protesters will blame immigrants for the decline in living standards, while right-wingers want him to stand firm against immigration after protesters claimed that a new UN migration pact will trigger a massive increase in the numbers arriving in France.  

The government is also struggling to explain how it will pay for Mr Macron's concessions to protesters. The prime minister, Edouard Philippe, said France’s budget deficit was now likely to exceed the EU limit of 3 per cent of GDP to reach 3.2 per cent next year. Before the concessions, the deficit had been expected to be 2.8 per cent.