German Gilets Jaunes Have a Case, Too
The conflict between environmental goals and the mobility needs of the less affluent is real, and not just in France.
Not just in France.
Photographer: JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP via Getty Images
Can the yellow vest, that symbol of French anti-elite protest, travel? Well, it’s clearly not as internationally ubiquitous as the red flag of class struggle was some 100 years ago, but most of the 700 people who demonstrated in Stuttgart on Saturday were wearing yellow security vests.
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chosen successor, has said she sees no room in Germany for a “Yellow Vest” movement like the French one – both left- and right-wingers have tried to adopt the symbol but failed. In reality, however, Germans have some of the same reasons to complain as the original French Yellow Vests.