Power Is No Longer What It Was

Power Is No Longer What It Was

By: Erreh Svaia

Caprine Dispersion

In several trips to the interior of the country I have run into the abundance of small motorcycles as the favorite vehicle of the population, accessible in price, easy to drive, easy to park, perfect to avoid traffic and economical in spending gasoline, I can affirm that the motorcycle, beyond the bicycle is the favorite transport of those who require mobility and seeks dynamism but is not willing to make the heavy investment of a car, in France by law motorcycle drivers are forced to wear a yellow vest in order to be properly seen by other drivers, ironically, this accessory has become the symbol of the recent street protests in the France of president Emmanuel Macron, and in the most recent days, these "yellow jackets" or "gilets jaunes" have been precisely the protagonists of the most violent street protests of the last 60 years in that country, the protests began after the creation of a gas tax, explained by the government of Macron, as a measure to reduce pollution and send the country in the route towards clean energy, seeing it from the point of view of ecology, cheap gasoline implies more use of motor vehicles and therefore more pollution, viewed from an economic point of view, it is undoubtedly a heavier burden for the population with fewer resources, many of them seeking savings through the use of a motorcycle instead of a car, and that is precisely where the government of Macron has not found a way to reconcile these two seemingly opposing forces and has become the recipient of harsh attacks by a sector of society.

The "yellow vests" have apparently emerged as a spontaneous movement (they have also appeared in the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy, and their possible appearance in the United Kingdom is not ruled out as the term for the Brexit expires), without a identified leadership (neither union nor political party) and emerged from social networks, its main characteristic besides the vests has been the relentless fury that they have shown in their demonstrations in the streets, although it is worth noting here the public support they have received from people like Francois Ruffin, politician and radical leftist journalist considered the French "Michael Moore", and who began his career as a political activist during the movement known as "Nuit debout" or "Uprising at night" that was part of the protests streetwear derived from the economic crisis of 2008 that years later would hit Europe, another of the characters that have given their support to the "yellow vests " has been the former candidate for the far right to the presidency, Marine Le Pen, curiously both politicians had been highly critical against the current president Emmanuel Macron (could this be a continuation of the discreet and underground alliance between Jean Luc Mélenchon of the extreme left and Le Pen of the far right), it is ironic that the Macron campaign arose from a movement apparently neither right nor left and that sought to use the networks to break with traditional politics, today it seems that the formula, less a visible leader it applies to the now Macron government.

France is not new when it comes to social protests on the street, many of them were recently opening the way for traditional parties to lose power and pragmatic options like Macron or extremists such as Le Pen, what is really surprising is how the Macron movement came to power so quickly, and so fast has become the "target establishment" of the new street protests, it seems that those elements described by the researcher Moises Naim in his book The End of Power, are becoming increasingly more a reality, nowadays it is easier to reach power more quickly, but in the same way it is more complicated to be able to maintain it, power "is not what it used to be", this is how we will see the emergence of more "radical" movements and iconoclasts that will come to power, but that will quickly fragment or disappear, it would seem to go away little by little becoming the thread of the current narrative, not only in France, we will have to be attentive to what happens in the US, in Brazil and in Mexico