Yellow jackets: from the streets to Strasbourg?
Part of the French yellow vest protest movement have announced plans to run in the European elections in May. Ten names are already on their list, led by Ingrid Levavasseur, a nurse from Normandy and one of the movement's best-known faces. Journalists see the move as having reshuffled the cards in French politics.
Rendezvous with reality
Die Presse greets the news that the yellow vests are to run in the European elections, because
“if they are elected to the European Parliament they will have to make the same decision as all protest parties before them: either they confine themselves to continued total rejection of the system - and vegetate on the back benches. Or they recognise the need for objective work and compromise. In that case they will invigorate the parliamentary debate. And that is in the interest of all democrats.”
Chance of a positive turn of events for Macron
The yellow vests' list could prove to be a godsend for Macron, Le Figaro comments:
“Every vote not cast for [the leading candidate of Le Pen's Rassemblement National] Jordan Bardella's list is good news for the list put forward by the president's LREM. But Macron also needs the yellow vests' list to not do too well - less than 10 percent - if he wants to be able to say that the movement has become nothing more than a fringe phenomenon. His objective now is to structure public debate in the country around his large-scale civic dialogue and away from the movement that destabilised it. With an identified list and moderately respectable results, Macron could get on with the second half of his mandate more calmly. A yellow vest list that receives support without getting too many votes would be the ideal scenario for the president.”