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Courtesy of the Times.
Yellow-vest protesters behind the revolt against President Macron announced yesterday that they were forming a political party to stand in the European elections in May. The slate will be headed by Ingrid Levavasseur, 31, a nursing auxiliary and single mother from Normandy who has become one of the figureheads of the uprising. The announcement comes with the yellow-vest movement torn between radicals who want to continue the campaign of street protests and roadblocks at roundabouts, and moderates seeking to end the violence that has marked the revolt.
An opinion poll suggested that 13 per cent of voters could back the yellow vests in the European elections, making them a force to be reckoned with. Although Mr Macron is the target of their anger, he is likely to be delighted at their move into politics, which could split the anti-establishment vote and weaken Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally) and the ultra-left France Insoumise (France Unbowed) party. The yellow vests said that their party would be called the Ralliement d’Initiative Citoyenne (Citizens’ Initiative Rally), or RIC for short. The name is a nod towards their main political idea, which is for so-called citizens’ initiative referendums, also known as RICs, to be held if several hundred thousand voters sign a petition asking for them.Hayc Shahinyan, one of the founders of the party, who is a small businessman and a singer who performs in bars in northern France, said that the yellow vests already had ten candidates and would have a full list of 79 by the middle of next month.
“The idea is that this should be carried by the people who have been on the roundabouts from the start and not by technocrats,” he said, adding that several well-known personalities who had sought to join the party had been refused. He said that the party had about a tenth of the €700,000 thought to be the minimum required for a national election campaign. Organisers intended to launch a crowdfunding campaign to try to raise the rest, he said. However, while the yellow vests lack a common ideology, the new party risks being criticised by other members of the movement who spurn traditional politics. Its first challenge will be to establish itself as the legitimate voice of the street protesters.
