Since November 17th, there are manifestations all over Europe due to the latest increase of gas prices and taxes. People are marching in the streets with high-visibility vests to show their disagreement.

Mostly in France, protesters, that are called “Gilets Jaunes”, are really mad of the decisions that Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, made. These people, dressed with yellow vests, block streets and try to recruit more people to manifest. The reason for this conflict is the fact that the government raised the tax for gas and the population decided to act.

Why gas taxes increase? That is because of the pollution that cars are blamable for. The government decided to raise prices to make people use their vehicles less. Even if it’s a logical solution to protect the environement, French people are furious of this. “By putting higher taxes on the gas price, the government makes car users pay for the pollution they do.” says François Lenglet, a French journalist.

On the first week of manifestations, there were around 280 000 protesters and now they are around 81 000. On their first manifestation, more than  277 militants have been hurt and one has been killed. “ Yellow vest, black anger!” “Jupiter, come back to earth, there is misery!” yelled all the manifestants while marching on November 17th. Around 60% of tax on gas are payed in France meanwhile, in Quebec, we pay 19.2% of tax on gas. This injustice makes people manifest.

Written by :  Alice Sourine

Edited by :Valeria Claro and Gabrielle Beaupre