Yellow Vests resurgence in France, Macron reeling

[parochial boy]

There's also the broader issue of trying to find moralistic/pseudo-anthropological explanations for people's political behavior, something that's fallen out of flavor in serious political science since the turn of the 20th century but that's apparently still popular among lazy pundits and people who like to ape lazy pundits.

you mean... en tout cas, les frouzes sont tous des râleurs... isn't great political analysis?

[parochial boy]

Something people should remember about France is that voters just naturally hate their politicians. Macron never had any hope of bucking said trend...

Yeah, but you're only allowed to make that joke if you're romand or walloon and have to put up with tedious french cultural hegemony all the time

[parochial boy]

Although one point worth noting is that the whole Périurbain explanationbehind the gilets janues protests has been somewhat controversial in its own right. Certainly, Guilluy's France périphérique is not without its critics, and there are of course, a number of very well heeled exurban towns the "périurbain choisi" that are highly desirable, and often very close to down market identikit lotissements. The town of Chantilly, in the otherwise unfashionable Oise is a good example.

The other point that it is worth remembering is that the main centres where the protests have been the biggest, relatively speaking, is along the diagonale du vide - the sparsely inhabited region stretching from the Basque Country to the Ardennes. Which is rural, rather than périurbain, and where the stories of dismal public transport, industrial decline, closing hospitals/schools; and above all, the need to drive long distances between school/work/home on a daily basis applies even more so than in the Seine-et-Marne or northern Isère or wherever.