An amazing video from Reelnews showing that a wide section of the French left joined the Yellow Vests at the height of the movement (December 8). Some of them especially came to protest against the particularly brutal police repression in the banlieues, in which many school children joined the Yellow Vests. Shocking videos of racist police handling of children went viral and helped an anti-racist voice emerge from the movement, which was until then silent on the question.

As the Yellow Vests protests got bigger and more and more uncontrollable, the French government had to back up on the new fuel tax and respond to some of the social demands of the movement. On December 10, Macron announced that workers on minimum wage would see their income increase up to 100 euros a month, that workers' share of taxes on overtime would be cut and that low-income pensioners were going to be spared from a tax rise on pensions. While the new measures are far to answer to all the demands of the movement (in particular, the goverment did not come back on its decision to cut the ISF (tax on wealthy households), it was the first time a French governement backed up because of social protests since the anti-CPE movement (a movement against the introduction of precarious work contacts for young people) in 2006.

Partly because of these concessions, partly because of the terrorist attack in Strasbourg on December 11, the movement has been decreasing in numbers from the middle of December onwards. However, many Yellow Vests on social media are relaying a call to demonstrate on the Champs d'Elysées on the 31st of December and to continue the protests in January. Demos are also planed on December 29 in Paris, Toulouse and Bordeaux.