five years ago, a left “incapable of understanding” the yellow vests – Libération

Through their procrastination, the fear of a takeover by the extreme right or stuck in preconceptions about the working classes, many left-wing leaders have missed out on the mobilization, whose heritage they nevertheless claim.

The words of Edouard Louis left an impression on him. “I felt personally targeted by the contempt and violence of the bourgeoisie which immediately fell on this movement. Because, in me, for me, each person who insulted a yellow vest insulted my father“, wrote the author on Facebook in 2018. Then a student, rebellious MP Damien Maudet was 22 years old when the protest movement broke out in France. For the first time in his life, he sees his mother preparing to go demonstrate at her home in Corrèze. “I told myself something was happening, he says. The yellow vests managed to bring out people who had never gone out.”

600 kilometers away, Philippe Brun leaves the ENA. The future socialist deputy is waiting for his classification and the resulting assignment, at home, in Louviers, in Eure, when he sees his social networks getting agitated. “I went to see them on the roundabouts and it changed my life, he says. Many local socialists said that we shouldn’t go there, that it was a fascist thing. I arrived at the toll booth next to