The European Commission’s decade-long tough austerity measures coupled with excessive taxation have resulted in the “yellow vests” movement, Andy Vermaut, a Belgian human rights activist, told Sputnik.
“In reality, the struggle of the Gilet Jaunes [Yellow Vests] is a cry for help from people who struggle every month for existence”, said Andy Vermaut, a Belgian human rights activist, emphasising that “working is no longer a guarantee for being able to exist properly” in Europe.
According to the activist, there is also a built-in “institutional discrimination” in the system which “divides people internally”. He believes that this is particularly the reason why these protests have ended in violence.
“They feel that their political representatives do not do enough to solve their problems and so a lot of people have the feeling that [these politicians] no longer represent them”, he said, adding that “everything can be traced back to a general dissatisfaction with the ever increasing taxes on the incomes of ordinary people”.