A few weeks after France’s les Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) movement took to the streets in November to protest rising fuel costs, the high cost of living and taxes on the middle and lower class, something similar happened in Tunisia. A call for protest went out on Facebook, inspired by the French but with a subtle difference: They called themselves les Gilets Rouges (Red Vests).
Les Gilets Rouges are slowly gaining traction online, amassing several thousand followers since Dec. 9, but the group is still in its infancy. “It’s not yet a movement, and we don’t know really where it’s coming from,” Massaoud Romdhani, head of the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, told Al-Monitor.
