Yellow Vest Protesters Seek to Revitalise Movement as Turnout Falls

• 05.11.2019, 18:03
•  Europe,  World

The 26^th consecutive weekend of demonstrations comes just two weeks before this month’s critical European parliamentary elections, France 24 reports.

Yet nearly six months after the movement first began, support for the Yellow Vests appears to be dwindling. Last week’s demonstrations drew less than 19,000 people nationwide, according to the French Interior Ministry – a number that has been contested by protesters as too low.

Yellow Vests hope that by staging large rallies in other major cities, they will be attracting supporters who don’t have the time, resources or inclination to travel to Paris every weekend.

“There’s a sort of fatigue and fear because of the police violence. There is also a financial aspect: it’s expensive to protest in Paris … but (the movement) could take off again from nothing,” Thierry Boirivant, a 44-year-old accountant and self-avowed Yellow Vest, told AFP on a highway outside of Lyon.