[88] Late in June 2017, Macron's Minister of Justice, François Bayrou, came under pressure to resign, due to the ongoing investigation into the financial arrangements of the political party (MoDem) he leads.

[79] The symbol has become "a unifying thread and call to arms" as yellow vests are common and inexpensive, easy to wear over any clothing, are associated with working-class industries, highly noticeable, and widely understood as a distress signal.

"[78] Éric Drouet and a businesswoman named Priscillia Ludosky from the Seine-et-Marne department started a petition on the change.org website in May 2018 that had reached 300,000 signatures by mid-October and close to 1 million a month later.

[125] Many of the protesters live in tight financial circumstances, often in rural or outer-urban areas where there is "weak economic growth and high unemployment", and where depending on a car for transport is "essential, and increasingly costly".

[131] The same day a reporter for the local newspaper La Dépêche du Midi was threatened by yellow vest protesters in Toulouse who told her "we'll take you out of your car and rape you".

In December the level of threats and attacks was such that more and more news organizations decided that every reporter they sent out should be accompanied by a bodyguard,[132] because of the strong aversion the yellow jackets had shown toward journalists and media.

The bottom-up Swiss model of government, where referendums are frequent, has been compared to the top-down French governmental system to explain the lack of a similar movement in French-speaking Switzerland.

[157] In Marseille, where demonstrations had been frequent since the 5 November collapse of a building and the evacuation of the surrounding neighborhoods,[158] Zineb Redouane [fr], an 80-year-old Algerian woman, was fatally wounded by shards from a police tear gas canister while trying to close her shutters.

[165] In his 10 December speech to the French people in response to the movement, Macron pledged a €100 per month increase in the minimum wage in 2019, the exclusion of charges and taxes on overtime hours in 2019, and on any 2018 end-of-year bonuses paid to employees.

[191] On the streets of Paris, protesters marching "noisily but mostly peacefully",[192] singing the French national anthem, were met by 5,000 riot police officers, armored vehicles and barricades.

[201] In Paris, police used tear gas and water cannons at Place de la Republique in the city center to force demonstrators back after clashes with protesters, some hooded or masked, and some who set fire to bins and a scooter.

[citation needed] In Paris, a group of individuals involved in the march confronted the high-profile Jewish philosopher and academician Alain Finkielkraut with anti-Semitic verbal abuse.

The debate had 44,000 participants, with 1 million votes cast on 25,000 proposals,[211] covering four main themes: the "deep transformation of the political system," "reinforcement of public services," "fiscal justice," and a "solidarity-based and accessible ecology.

[218] People participated in the protests of 14 March 2020 in spite of the imminent COVID-19 national lockdown, but leaders of the movement, like Maxime Nicolle and Jérôme Rodrigues, called on staying safe at home.

[227] Injuries included tens of facial trauma caused by police non-lethal weapon ammunition,[228] nicknamed "flash-ball" despite not being of the type,[229][230] that are supposed to be fired at the legs, not at the head, and are accurate enough for this purpose.

[248][249] Vinci SA, which operates roughly half of France's highway concessions, stated in its annual report to investors that traffic had dropped nine per cent in the final three months of 2018 as a result of the protests.

[262] The recently named[263] Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner, blamed Marine Le Pen, Macron's opponent in the 2017 presidential election, and her Rassemblement National party for the violence on 24 November 2018 after she had reportedly urged people to go to the Champs Élysées.

[151] Le Pen responded that letting people assemble on the Champs Élysées was the government's responsibility and accused the Minister of the Interior of trying to increase the tension to discredit the movement.

[243][270] Police, unlike other public sector employees, either saw their wages raised by €120–150 per month ($134-168) by an agreement signed on 20 December,[271] or received an annual €300 ($336) bonus by an amendment voted into law the previous day.

Citing historian Herrick Chapman, he suggests General de Gaulle's centralization of power when creating the French Fifth Republic was so excessive that it made street protests the only "dynamic alternative to government policy".

[121] According to French scholar Béatrice Giblin, comparisons between the gilets jaunes and the Bonnets Rouges—who opposed a new eco-tax in 2013—were inapt because the latter "had been taken in hand by real leaders, such as the mayor of Carhaix, or the great bosses of Brittany" whereas that was not the case for the yellow jackets.

Jean-Yves Camus, an expert on French political extremism, identified an "inherent weakness of a movement that lets the people speak" as being that anyone (whether far left, far right, radical Islamist, or anti-Zionist) can say whatever they want in the street with little concern for propriety or legality.

[319] Marine Le Pen, challenger of Macron in the 2022 French presidential election, immediately condemned the vaccination obligation as "indecent insolence" attesting to "ingratitude" towards the health care workers.

[331] Thousands of people demonstrated again on the streets of France on Saturday, 21 August, against the government's policy of vaccination against Covid-19 amid concerns from human rights groups over the anti-Semitic mood in the protest movement.

Riot police in Brussels were pelted with billiard balls, cobblestones, and rocks on 30 November, and responded with water cannons; 60 arrests were made for disturbing the public order.

[2][351] On 8 December, when protesters calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Charles Michel tried to breach a riot barricade, police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the demonstrators.

[363] Scheer and Bernier drew criticism[364][365][366][367] for appearing at the United We Roll event when it was revealed that alt-right personality Faith Goldy, formerly of controversial Internet outlet Rebel Media, was also in attendance[368] and made a presentation to the participants, several of whom carried signs and chanted slogans accusing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of "treason"[369] and demanding that Canada withdraw from the non-binding United Nations Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM).

[370] Liberal Minister of Natural Resources Amarjeet Sohi and NDP MP Nathan Cullen were among the members of Parliament who expressed concern that the presence of mainstream political leaders at the rally was lending legitimacy to the movement.

[365] A spokesperson for Scheer denied that the Conservative leader intended to lend support to racist and/or violent groups, telling columnist Martin Patriquin that "We can't control who shows up to these events.

[374] CAHN said that Yellow vest Facebook groups posts contained "calls for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's arrest and execution" which was also a major theme of the Canada convoy protests.