The Briefing Room
General Category => World News => Topic started by: mountaineer on November 24, 2018, 02:53:23 pm
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Is Paris burning?
France fuel protests: Police in Paris fire tear gas
BBC
Nov. 24, 2018
Police in Paris have used tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters demonstrating for a second weekend against rising fuel prices.
Clashes broke out on the Champs-Elysées as protesters tried to get through a police security cordon around sensitive sites in the centre of the city.
Several thousand demonstrators are estimated to have gathered and 3,000 police officers have been deployed.
Organisers billed the latest protests as "act two" in their rolling campaign.
Known as "yellow jackets" after their distinctive high-visibility attire, the protesters oppose an increase in fuel duty on diesel. ...
Some demonstrators ripped up paving stones and threw firecrackers at police while shouting slogans calling for President Emmanuel Macron to resign.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner accused the demonstrators of being influenced by the leader of the far-right National Rally party, Marine Le Pen. But she accused him, on Twitter, of dishonesty. ...
More at BBC (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46328439)
(https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/B673/production/_104470764_mediaitem104470762.jpg)
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Associated Press:
PARIS (AP) — French police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse demonstrators in Paris Saturday, as thousands gathered in the capital and staged road blockades across the nation to vent anger against rising fuel taxes and Emmanuel Macron's presidency.
Thousands of police were deployed nationwide to contain the demonstrations, including a tense protest at the foot of the Champs-Elysees where protesters wielded placards reading "Death to Taxes" and upturned a large vehicle.
No one was injured in the clashes, but six were arrested for "throwing projectiles," Paris Police told The Associated Press.
"It's going to trigger a civil war and me, like most other citizens, we're all ready," said Benjamin Vrignaud, a 21-year-old protester from Chartres. ...
Five thousand protesters flooded the Champs-Elysees alone, with 23,000 protesters in total nationwide, according to Interior Minister Christophe Castaner. ...
Macron has insisted that the fuel tax rises are a necessary pain to reduce France's dependence on fossil fuels and fund renewable energy investments, which is a cornerstone of his reforms of the nation. ...
More (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/police-uses-tear-gas-water-cannon-against-paris-protesters/ar-BBQ2geG)
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France’s ‘gilets jaunes’ leave Macron feeling decidedly off-colour
Fuel tax protest has widened into outburst at inequality and against ruling political class
Angelique Chrisafis
Fri 23 Nov 2018 10.34 EST
Anti-government protesters who barricaded roads and fuel depots across France this week are to stage fresh demonstrations in Paris on Saturday, as Emmanuel Macron struggles to quell a national mood of defiance.
The “gilets jaunes†(yellow vests) citizens’ movement – named after the protesters’ fluorescent, high-visibility vests – has caught the French president off-guard. The movement has no leader and its ad-hoc barricades at tollbooths, roundabouts and fuel depots have been organised on social media.
The movement, which began as a protest against rising fuel taxes, has grown into a wider outpouring over inequality, a political class seen as cut off from reality and the pro-business Macron’s persistently negative image as a “president of the richâ€. ...
Marie, 31, a childminder in the Var region of southern France, has been protesting all week at a tollbooth “People are exasperated, there is so much anger – taxes are going up, our salaries aren’t. When you work hard, it feels unfair,†she said.
“My retired parents can’t make ends meet so they had to get work distributing advertising leaflets. The government isn’t listening. To me, Macron is the president of the rich, slashing taxes for the wealthy, ignoring the rest of us. Politicians are cut off from our lives.
“Those in charge are one big oligarchy. The media can’t be trusted either. I’d consider voting Marine Le Pen, but the whole political class is a letdown and I wonder why I vote at all. I worry the future will be even worse for my three children than it is for me.†... More at The Guardian (U.K.) (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/23/frances-gilets-jaunes-leave-macron-feeling-decidely-off-colour)
(https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/078c5205a083bd6e9d7bd236069bcedecddc4fa9/0_67_3500_2100/master/3500.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=533bc6e9aa5849f197a9c9dd55333a61)
A protester outside a shopping centre in Nantes walks past a wall with graffiti
saying: ‘Macron, resign.’ Photograph: Stéphane Mahé/Reuters
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Muslims raping their daughters and no-go zones, nothing. Raise the gas tax, national protests. Tough to figure out the French. :shrug:
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“My retired parents can’t make ends meet so they had to get work distributing advertising leaflets. The government isn’t listening. To me, Macron is the president of the rich, slashing taxes for the wealthy, ignoring the rest of us. Politicians are cut off from our lives.
“Do you hear the people sing?â€
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There's always something to protest in France (except the Muslim invasion, of course).
Nationwide 'Nous toutes' marches protest violence against women in France
Louise NORDSTROM
Latest update : 2018-11-24
For months, French feminists have set aside November 24 as a day for nationwide marches to protest violence against women. Protesters are hoping that last-minute blockades staged by the country’s “yellow vests†don't eclipse the women’s message.
“YellowVests, please leave us November 24,†@layemeraude tweeted when organisers behind France’s anti-diesel tax movement earlier this week announced a new round of road blockades this Saturday. “It’s the day for #Nous_Toutes, the day for when marches against sexist and sexual violence have been organised in all of France, it’s been planned for months! We really need this exposure!†she wrote.
#NousToutes, which roughly translates into “All of us (women)â€, is a French grassroots movement that was born this summer when several of the country’s feminist groups got together and decided to take last year’s #MeToo campaign one step further and call more attention to sexist and sexual violence against women. In September, the group organised its first protest action, garnering some 600 people in Paris and a total of 4,000 across France. ...
But the scheduled marches risk being overshadowed, or even disrupted, by parallel protests staged by the so-called “yellow vest†movement, which have erupted over the government’s recent tax hike on diesel fuel. The movement – named after the high-visibility vests that French drivers are required to carry in their vehicles – held its first protests on November 17, with nearly 300,000 people mounting barricades or using their bodies to block access to motorways, tunnels and airports across France. On Monday, organisers called on their supporters to protest again, urging them to come out in force this Saturday, especially in Paris. ...
More at France24 (https://www.france24.com/en/20181123-france-paris-duelling-protests-noustoutes-sexual-violence-march-yellow-vests-blockades?ref=tw_i)
(https://img.lemde.fr/2018/11/23/0/0/6016/4016/688/0/60/0/5809dc3_vL_fZnVwEUDbOzpNdnytA2cR.jpg)
Photo from Le Monde (https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2018/11/23/a-paris-un-centre-vient-en-aide-aux-femmes-victimes-de-violences_5387411_3224.html)
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Doesn't France use a great deal of power, from nuclear plants?
What is the use for diesel, since most people do not drive privately owned vehicles; least of all the type o people that go to the streets in protest?
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You'd think France was a socialist country or sumpthin.
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These kind of riots and protests seem to be a French tradition.
As others mentioned above, why aren't they smart enough to riot against the onslaught of islam in their country...?
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My father was in France during the 1968 riots. He asked one protester what they were hoping to accomplish. The answer, essentially, was, "Je ne sais quois."
My first visit to Paris was in 1983 with my cousin. We arrived to find people blocking the streets and harassing motorists, protesting something or other. Later, we were at the Eiffel Tower and looked down to see protesters burning someone in effigy.
In 2008, we almost got stranded in France because of a strike at the airport.
It's always something with these people! :laugh:
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My father was in France during the 1968 riots. He asked one protester what they were hoping to accomplish. The answer, essentially, was, "Je ne sais quois."
My first visit to Paris was in 1983 with my cousin. We arrived to find people blocking the streets and harassing motorists, protesting something or other. Later, we were at the Eiffel Tower and looked down to see protesters burning someone in effigy.
In 2008, we almost got stranded in France because of a strike at the airport.
It's always something with these people! :laugh:
At least when the Nazi's took over they had the trains running on time.
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PARIS (AP) — The Latest on protests in France (all times local):
8:05 p.m. Nov 24
French President Emmanuel Macron has condemned violence by protesters at demonstrations against rising fuel taxes and his government.
Macron said in a strongly worded tweet: “Shame on those who attacked (police). Shame on those who were violent against other citizens ... No place for this violence in the Republic.â€
https://apnews.com/3f6c80f6c83b4292a7869147ee947bb1
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(https://www.dw.com/image/46437592_401.jpg)
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Looks like "shame on those" is about as macho as M. Macron gets.
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Interesting analysis from "No Pasarán"
... It is not wrong to say that the demonstrations were caused by the government's decision to raise gas prices. What is missing is that this is just one of several draconian measures dating back half a year, i.e., ‘tis the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.
For the past four to five months, the French government has done nothing but double down on bringing more and more gratuitous oppression and more and more unwarranted persecution measures down on the necks the nation's drivers and motorcycle riders.
In fact, the imposition of ever harsher rules has been going on for the past decade and a half or so — whether the government was on the right or on the left — and that is why the choice of les gilets jaunes (the yellow jackets) by the demonstrators is particularly ironic.
The 2008 law (under the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy) requiring the presence of high-visibility vests (gilets de haute visibilité) aka security vests (gilets de sécurité) in every vehicle — hardly an unreasonable rule, for sure, as similar ones exist throughout the continent — was just another example of the myriad of evermore-onerous rules for car and motorcycle owners over the past 15 years, and so the government in effect provided the 2018 rebels with their uniforms. ... More (https://no-pasaran.blogspot.com/2018/11/we-are-not-milch-cows-how-fake-news-has.html)
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Macron: Paris protest 'battle scenes' could hurt France's image
Paris begins clean-up of damage at cost of up to £1.3m as 200 extra workers drafted in
Kim Willsher
26 Nov 2018
Emmanuel Macron has said the “battle scenes†in central Paris between police and protesters over the weekend risked unnerving foreigners.
The French president told ministers at a cabinet meeting on Monday that the government must respond after images were relayed around the world of police firing teargas and water cannon at protesters who set up barricades, lit fires and smashed restaurants and shopfronts on the Champs-Élysées. ...
BFM TV reported that France’s intelligence services had identified 80 to 120 extreme-right sympathisers at the heart of the violence, while other media claimed tags and logos at the scene suggested extreme leftwing and anarchist organisations were involved.
Officials said it was too early to establish the cost of the damage, but one estimated it could be up to €1.5m (£1.3m).
Sparked by fuel price rises, the gilets jaunes movement has embraced wider dissatisfaction with Macron and his centrist government, who are seen as out of touch with ordinary people. Ministers have said there will be no U-turn on fuel tax increases, which are part of environmental measures. Macron is expected to respond to the protests in a speech on Tuesday. ... More at the Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/26/paris-begins-clean-up-after-gilets-jaunes-clash-protest-with-police)
Centrist?
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Still going on:
France fuel protests: Tear gas fired in clashes in Paris
Police and protesters have clashed in Paris during a third weekend of "yellow vest" demonstrations sparked by rising fuel prices.
Police fired tear gas while several officers had yellow paint thrown at them. At least 39 people were arrested.
Thousands of people have been taking to the streets in protest at fuel costs and the high cost of living.
President Macron struck a conciliatory tone earlier in the week but said he would not abandon his fuel tax.
He said it was a key part of France's future energy strategy to combat global warming, but added that he was open to ideas about how the tax could be applied. ...
BBC (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46411699)
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omg, a museum is on fire.
Paris violence: Jeu de Paume gallery on fire as 'mob storm Tuileries Garden'
The fire comes after riot police and masked French protesters clashed as violent protests erupted over fuel prices
By Elaine McCahill
15:59, 1 DEC 2018Updated19:24, 1 DEC 2018
The famous Jeu de Paume art gallery in Paris is on fire amid violent protests in the French capital today.
Footage shows the arts centre for modern and postmodern photography and media in flames as protests erupted across the city over fuel prices.
The gallery is located in the north corner of the Tuileries Gardens next to the Place de la Concorde. ...
(https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article13672765.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/1_Tuleries-Garden.jpg)
Full story at the Mirror (U.K.) (https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/paris-violence-jeu-de-paume-13672795)
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(https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/f0170b46f9682fe2897dd46d4e98bced258621d4/0_0_5000_3333/master/5000.jpg?width=1920&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=5b3308fe62e7efc61a5b0b0f2a0c6656)
A vandalised statue of the Marianne, a symbol of the French Republic, inside the Arc de Triomphe. Protesters smashed other statues in the monument and destroyed the gift shop
More photos of the damage done by rioters at The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2018/dec/02/the-aftermath-of-the-gilets-jaunes-riots-in-paris-in-pictures)
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Paris riots: Macron to hold emergency meeting after worst unrest in decade
The Guardian/UK, Dec 2, 2018
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, will hold an emergency meeting of senior ministers on Sunday after central Paris saw its worst unrest in a decade on Saturday. Thousands of masked protesters fought running battles with police, set fire to cars, banks and houses and burned makeshift barricades on the edges of demonstrations against fuel tax rises.
On Sunday morning, Paris authorities hired extra trucks to begin removing the carcasses of burnt cars on from the scorched pavements of some of Paris’s most expensive streets, amid graffiti calling for Macron to resign.
Piles of teargas canisters littered broken pavements in front of rows of shattered shopfronts and smashed windows, as TV channels showed non-stop footage of central Paris in flames during Saturday’s events..
The government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux did not rule out imposing a state of emergency – which two police unions have called for. The president, prime minister and interior minister said they would discuss all available options.
More: https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2018/nov/28/has-france-fallen-out-of-love-with-emmanuel-macron-today-in-focus-podcast (https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2018/nov/28/has-france-fallen-out-of-love-with-emmanuel-macron-today-in-focus-podcast)
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(https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2018/12/01/17/6886360-6449407-A_car_completely_engulfed_in_flames_is_burnt_in_front_of_the-a-5_1543684699267.jpg)
(https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2018/12/01/17/6887012-6449407-image-a-40_1543686992147.jpg)
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(https://www.forgottothink.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Paris-fuel-tax-protest47.jpg)
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(https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2018/12/02/12/6906970-6451503-image-a-88_1543755343703.jpg)
(https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2018/12/02/12/6906382-6451503-image-m-87_1543753614824.jpg)
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Macron is hit with an egg ...
Sorry... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4gannf9ufw#)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4gannf9ufw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4gannf9ufw)
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The anarchists and “professional†protesters have infiltrated.
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One less socialist to comment on tear gas at our borders. Was this why Macaroon was attempting assertiveness with the Saudi Prince yesterday?
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The anarchists and “professional†protesters have infiltrated.
I wouldn't be surprised. Even in France: never let a crisis go to waste.
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Doesn't France use a great deal of power, from nuclear plants?
What is the use for diesel, since most people do not drive privately owned vehicles; least of all the type o people that go to the streets in protest?
A good number of European cars use diesel. You get more mileage per gallon (diesel has more energy per gallon) and it was thought to be more environmentally friendly. But as far as the environment, VW and others cheated on their pollution claims...
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BNL NEWS
@BreakingNLive
BREAKING: WATCH: Paris: A group of French police officers remove their helmets to show solidarity with the French people against President Emmanuel Macron, as anti Macron protests continue throughout France.
#GiletsJaunes
https://twitter.com/BreakingNLive/status/1069340718844522496
1:21 PM - 2 Dec 2018
Video at link.
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You'd think France was a socialist country or sumpthin.
Protesters get murdered in socialist countries.
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Protesters get murdered in socialist countries.
Only after it gets to the point of show elections that get the same result no matter how people vote.
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Riots, looting and violence: Here's what's happening in France and why it matters
CNBC, Nov 3, 2018
[...]
Why are people protesting?
The protests are essentially about recent tax hikes on fuel (gasoline and especially diesel) as part of the government's proposed carbon tax designed to improve its environmental credentials.
The tide of public resentment against the fuel tax rises has swollen into sometimes violent protests. Demonstrators wearing high-visibility jackets have blocked highways and fuel depots and protests have often turned violent. The protests were initially described as a largely working-class, grass roots movement with many among the demonstrators saying their livelihoods will be threatened by higher fuel prices.
However, the protests have now morphed into wider discontent at the high cost of living in France and dissatisfaction with Macron, whose popularity continues to fall. A poll by Kantar Public in late October showed that 71 percent of 1,000 respondents in the poll had no confidence in Macron.
[...]
"I guess what's specific to this movement is that it is relatively apolitical, so they (the protesters) are not from just one party on the left or right. They're white, middle-class people that are squeezed by the welfare state. They pay a lot of taxes but they don't get a lot of benefits in return," she told CNBC's Julianna Tatelbaum in Paris.
"And I guess if there are other people in other European counties that face these same challenges then obviously it could become a bigger movement."
More: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/03/france-fuel-protests-heres-whats-happening-and-why-it-matters.html (https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/03/france-fuel-protests-heres-whats-happening-and-why-it-matters.html)
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LOL. Silly Frogs.
(https://media.giphy.com/media/SsNN1EeC4Xkas/giphy.gif)
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Protesters get murdered in socialist countries.
France is as Socialist as it gets. The govt' owns a controlling stake in all their major companies.
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LOL. Silly Frogs.
(https://media.giphy.com/media/SsNN1EeC4Xkas/giphy.gif)
(http://i49.tinypic.com/9znbqp.jpg) (http://i49.tinypic.com/9znbqp.jpg) (http://i49.tinypic.com/9znbqp.jpg) (http://i49.tinypic.com/9znbqp.jpg)
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Dear conservatives: France's 'yellow jacket' protesters are not our friends
by Tom Rogan
| December 03, 2018 04:15 PM The so-called "yellow jacket" protesters setting Paris alight do not deserve conservative support. They deserve only our desire for their defeat.
Some U.S. conservative commentators disagree with that assessment. Buck Sexton, for example, argues: When a government confiscates money from people under the threat of force to vaguely address a make believe problem, people who are struggling to put food on the table get pissed off
What a shock. https://t.co/BxlKoc53hO (https://t.co/BxlKoc53hO)
— Buck Sexton (@BuckSexton) December 2, 2018
... Still, the yellow jackets don't deserve conservative support. Because at the margin, this is no longer a battle between bad government policy and peaceful protesters against that policy. It's a struggle between the rule of law and the rule of the mob. The current state of France's Arc de Triomphe attests to as much. Protesters this weekend decided to desecrate the monument, attacking a statue of the republic's version of Lady Liberty, "Marianne," and destroying other statues. A video posted to Facebook shows dozens of protesters marauding through the Arc's museum.
That protesters would desecrate such a defining symbol of French glory says much about what this movement now is: thuggery veiled as political opposition. But if you don't think that this treatment of national monuments alone discredits the yellow jackets, then consider their treatment of Parisian persons and property. As the center-left Le Monde reports, this weekend saw hundreds of cars burned out, dozens of buildings or street stalls destroyed, and dozens of injured police officers. Many small business owners have suffered losses during the riots. These things are very poor testaments to conservative values. ...
More at Washington Examiner (https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/dear-conservatives-frances-yellow-jacket-protesters-are-not-our-friends)
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From what I saw they're trying to start another revolution where they want to kill anyone deemed to be too wealthy. I don't know what percentage of them are working towards that end but at least some of them are screaming that.
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French police here, really crack down in the video at link. Without knowing more on the situation, this is fine with me. If you do this stuff in Italy, you get put down big time, no questions asked.
https://twitter.com/ragipsoylu/status/1069367451396333568 (https://twitter.com/ragipsoylu/status/1069367451396333568)
I think the BBC is reporting that the protesters are not going to discuss these problems with the government because the protesters say the violent element among the movement is threatening others. The protesters seem way out of line to me.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46434707 (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46434707)
France fuel protests: 'Yellow vests' pull out of PM meeting
Protesters from France's "gilet jaunes" (yellow vests) movement have pulled out of a meeting with PM Edouard Philippe scheduled for Tuesday.
Some members of the group said they had received death threats from hardline protesters warning them not to enter into negotiations with the government.
The "yellow vests" have been protesting about a controversial fuel tax since mid-November.
More: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46434707 (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46434707)
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They keep voting in petty tyrants like Macron instead of LePen, and then they riot over what they voted in.
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France expected to suspend fuel-tax hike that led to violent 'Yellow Jacket' protests
Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY
Dec. 4, 2018
After more than two weeks of protests that have led to blocked roads, torched cars, looting and chaos in some of Paris' wealthiest neighborhoods, France's prime minister was expected Tuesday to suspend a fuel-tax hike that triggered the demonstrations.
Edouard Philippe will temporarily call off plans to increase a diesel tax, French media reported. The move is aimed at easing tensions after more than 100 people were injured and 400 arrested in Paris over the weekend amid "Yellow Jacket" protests.
Read more at: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/12/04/france-yellow-jacket-tax-protests/2200073002/ (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/12/04/france-yellow-jacket-tax-protests/2200073002/)
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(https://i.postimg.cc/rzqmvDXc/images.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/rzqmvDXc)
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English Lugansk
†@loogunda
Reportedly, a recent video from Paris of a Monop' store being plundered https://twitter.com/Gorsha81/status/1069625732995928065 … commenters noticed several phrases in Russian in the video (I can hear them too, hmm... "monop" looks like RU cursive топор "axe" - just saw a familiar word?)
Стрєлок Ðе дождьотєÑÑ
https://twitter.com/loogunda/status/1069850418551894016
This sounds farfetched but I don't think it is necessarily farfetched that Russia or maybe better said, Putin, might try to cause strife by getting involved in Western unrest.
Niels Ockelmann
†@NOckelmann
#Russia is building sleeper cells in #Switzerland and are training groups to "cause unrest and uncertainty in the target area".
https://twitter.com/NOckelmann/status/1069887458911883264
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...After more than two weeks of protests that have led to blocked roads, torched cars, looting and chaos in some of Paris' wealthiest neighborhoods, France's prime minister was expected Tuesday to suspend a fuel-tax hike that triggered the demonstrations....
The protesters will be glad to know it worked and look forward to using this tactic again.
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The French gubmint has suspended the fuel tax, for now.
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The French gubmint has suspended surrendered the fuel tax, for now.
Fixed it for you.
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Fixed it for you.
On the other hand, the French middle class is showing more b*lls than the American (or at least blue state) middle class, who always accept their tax increase with a whimper.
I hope this starts changing soon.
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On the other hand, the French middle class is showing more b*lls than the American (or at least blue state) middle class, who always accept their tax increase with a whimper.
I hope this starts changing soon.
We (middle class) are not the rioting kind on those isuues.. Only leftists and antifa do that stuff.
But your point is well taken and not lost on me.
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The new French fuel tax - enacted in the name of green piety - is expected to strip French citizens of an estimated $8 billion. And for what? France is already a low-carbon country (in large part because most electricity comes from no-emission nuclear power) and the money will likely go to transition from reliable nuclear power to unreliable renewables.
I don't condone the current violence, spurred by anarchists with their own agendas, but the French people have a right to be pissed off by the arrogance of their betters.
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I suspect that what started as a middle-class, populist protest against government overreach and excessive taxes in France has been co-opted by leftist Antifa-types, and that they are the ones committing destructive acts like smashing the Marianne sculpture, destroying shop windows and spray painting the Arc de Triomphe.
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France’s Macron Blinks in Standoff With Yellow Vests
Grassroots movement “gilets jaunes†led violent protests in the heart of Paris, pressuring him to back down on key piece of reform plan
By Matthew Dalton and
Noemie Bisserbe
Updated Dec. 4, 2018 8:38 a.m. ET
PARIS—French President Emmanuel Macron delayed a planned tax increase on fuel, handing a victory to a grass-roots protest movement that has massed across France to challenge his agenda.
Faced with another weekend of destructive protests by the “gilets jaunesâ€â€”or yellow vests—Prime Minister Édouard Philippe told a news conference Tuesday the tax hike would be pushed back six months. The worst riots to hit Paris in decades erupted during antigovernment protests Saturday, leaving the city’s shopping and tourist center dotted with burning cars and broken storefronts. Protesters vandalized the Arc de Triomphe, rattling Mr. Macron’s administration and the nation.
“No tax is worth threatening the unity of the nation,†Mr. Philippe said.
The protests have become a test of Mr. Macron’s resolve to forge ahead with his broader agenda, particularly his pro-business overhaul of the French economy. Tuesday’s concession marked the first time the Macron government has blinked since the former investment banker took office in the spring of 2017.
more
https://www.wsj.com/articles/france-to-delay-fuel-tax-increase-after-violent-protests-1543925246 (https://www.wsj.com/articles/france-to-delay-fuel-tax-increase-after-violent-protests-1543925246)
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particularly his pro-business overhaul of the French economy.
Yeah. That was never going to happen because Macron is a Commie Pinko fag.
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I suspect that what started as a middle-class, populist protest against government overreach and excessive taxes in France has been co-opted by leftist Antifa-types, and that they are the ones committing destructive acts like smashing the Marianne sculpture, destroying shop windows and spray painting the Arc de Triomphe.
I suspect that is true.
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Merged several threads.
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Donald J. Trump
Verified account @realDonaldTrump
I am glad that my friend @EmmanuelMacron and the protestors in Paris have agreed with the conclusion I reached two years ago. The Paris Agreement is fatally flawed because it raises the price of energy for responsible countries while whitewashing some of the worst polluters....
....in the world. I want clean air and clean water and have been making great strides in improving America’s environment. But American taxpayers – and American workers – shouldn’t pay to clean up others countries’ pollution.
2:56 PM - 4 Dec 2018
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1070089365995642881
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In praise of the Gilets jaunes
Brendan O'Neill
3 December 2018At last, a people’s revolt against the tyranny of environmentalism. Paris is burning. Not since 1968 has there been such heat and fury in the streetsThousands of ‘gilets jaunes’ stormed the capital at the weekend to rage against Emmanuel Macron and his treatment of them with aloof, technocratic disdain. And yet leftists in Britain and the US have been largely silent, or at least antsy, about this people’s revolt. The same people who got so excited about the staid, static Occupy movement a few years ago — which couldn’t even been arsed to march, never mind riot — seem struck dumb by the sight of tens of thousands of French people taking to the barricades against Macronism.
It isn’t hard to see why. It’s because this revolt is as much against their political orthodoxies as it is against Macron’s out-of-touch and monarchical style. Most strikingly this is a people’s rebellion against the onerous consequences of climate-change policy, against the politics of environmentalism and its tendency to punish the little people for daring to live relatively modern, fossil-fuelled lives. This is new. This is unprecedented. We are witnessing perhaps the first mass uprising against eco-elitism and we should welcome it with open arms to the broader populist revolt that has been sweeping Europe for a few years now. ...
Of course the gilet-jaunes revolt isn’t just about fuel tax. It expresses a broader sense of public anger with the new political class and their cult of bureaucracy, their preference for technocracy over democracy, their gaping, astonishing distance from the concerns and beliefs of ordinary people. ...
More at the Spectator (U.K.) (https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/12/in-praise-of-the-gilets-jaunes/)
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French President Emmanuel Macron has scrapped a fuel tax rise amid fears of new violence, after weeks of nationwide protests and the worst rioting in Paris in decades.
An official with the Elysee palace told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the president decided to get rid of the tax.
Philippe told lawmakers that "the tax is now abandoned" in the 2019 budget, and the government is "ready for dialogue." The budget can be adjusted or renegotiated through the course of the year.
Three weeks of protests have left four people dead and were a massive challenge to Macron.
One of the activists leading France's protest movement says that he fears more deaths if Saturday's demonstration goes ahead, and called for President Emmanuel Macron to speak out and bring calm.
Christophe Chalencon said that "if not there will be chaos," with risks of more deaths.
Chalencon said in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press that the grassroots movement, triggered by fuel tax hikes, has grown amid Macron's silence.
Four people have died since protests began in November. Violent rampaging last Saturday devastated the French capital.
Chalencon, a 52-year-old blacksmith, said the public needed Macron to "admit he made a mistake, with simple words ... that touch the guts and heart of the French."
He said the prime minister's announcement Tuesday of a freeze on tax hikes "had no resonance."
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/latest-leading-protest-activist-macron-speak-59624047
Message to Trump: Better not try to raise gas taxes here.
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Message to Trump: Better not try to raise gas taxes here.
LOL! That shit would never go down here.
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LOL! That shit would never go down here.
Yeppers, and neither would illegal immigration, gay marriage, Bammycare, Sharia law, and Common Core.
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Yeppers, and neither would illegal immigration, gay marriage, Bammycare, Sharia law, and Common Core.
I meant people wouldn't force the government to comply through public unrest. They don't care about our outrage.
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END OF MACRON: French MPs launch NO CONFIDENCE vote amid nationwide anger and riots
EMMANUEL Macron’s leadership is hanging by a thread as left-wing groups within the French parliament discuss launching a no confidence vote against the president.
By Romina McGuinness
PUBLISHED: 10:07, Thu, Dec 6, 2018 | UPDATED: 14:34, Thu, Dec 6, 2018
Mr Macron and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe’s popularity ratings hit new lows as the “yellow vest†protests gathered speed, according to an Ifop-Fiducial poll. The young centrist has been hit by a wave of popular discontent over a planned eco-tax rise, which quickly morphed into a broader rebuke of his aloof leadership style and tough policies. Mr Macron’s satisfaction rating fell to 23 per cent in November, down six percentage points on the previous month, the poll for Paris Match and Sud Radio showed.
more
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1055152/Macron-news-france-crisis-protests-end-of-macron-no-confidence-vote (https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1055152/Macron-news-france-crisis-protests-end-of-macron-no-confidence-vote)
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This article doesn't mention that the tax hike is only temporarily scrapped.
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The left wing loves socialism until they have to actually pay for it.
The wealth redistribution scheme (carbon tax) is now hitting the French middle class because their tax laws have forced all the wealthy French to leave France.
Now that its up to the middle class to pay for socialism - there are riots and they want a Donald Trump.
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This article doesn't mention that the tax hike is only temporarily scrapped.
That was the day before.It has now been dropped from the 2019 budget
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/obamas-choice-beto-meeting-puts-ex-president-in-awkward-spot-as-numerous-allies-eye-2020 (https://www.foxnews.com/politics/obamas-choice-beto-meeting-puts-ex-president-in-awkward-spot-as-numerous-allies-eye-2020)
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Message to Trump: Better not try to raise gas taxes here.
Fortunately we don't have the government set where the president can raise most taxes by himself, except for tariffs...
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Fortunately we don't have the government set where the president can raise most taxes by himself, except for tariffs...
No one said he could do this himself.
Was referring to his past hint that this could happen with his support.
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Macron screwed the pooch on this one. The Yellow Jackets are not going to stop rioting because he backed off. Those Antifa types are going to destroy France.
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No one said he could do this himself.
Was referring to his past hint that this could happen with his support.
I've spent a little time searching trying to learn about the French taxes and how/what was put in place leading to the revolt.
So far all I have found has blamed Macron alone, while I find that hard to be the reality.
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When the GW crowd pushed for carbon taxes, they didn't realize they would be paying it themselves.
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Footage of 146 protesters taken in for questioning:
https://twitter.com/KTHopkins/status/1071002905606529025
Say what you will, it would not surprise me if outside interests are trying to fan the flames over this.
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http://thefederalist.com/2018/12/07/riots-france-arent-just-gas-taxes-wests-decline/ (http://thefederalist.com/2018/12/07/riots-france-arent-just-gas-taxes-wests-decline/)
The Riots In France Aren’t Just About Gas Taxes, But About The West’s Decline
The yellow jacket protests are just a small symptom of a much larger problem––the decline and fall of once-magnificent France.
By Auguste Meyrat
December 7, 2018
This past week, Parisians in yellow safety vests took to the streets to riot against French leadership. They have defaced the Arc de Triomphe, thrown rocks at policemen and soldiers, and lit fires all over the city. Macron literally had egg on his face and continues to suffer abysmal approval ratings, while the current protests enjoy high approval ratings in the country, despite the destruction.
Most commentary (which happened all over France, not just Paris) has focused on the fuel tax increase as the main reason for the protests, as though the French have never paid exorbitant taxes before. It has also characterized the yellow vest protests as a recent event, but they had been going on for weeks before they became violent these past few days.
Macron and the French media have unsurprisingly tried to pin the protests and riots on Marine Le Pen’s racist minions without evidence, while residents in France have claimed that the protesters are mostly middle-aged Frenchmen with no political affiliation.
While protests and car-burnings are actually common in France, what’s happening now is much worse than usual and will not go away anytime soon. What observers should know is that this is not about fuel prices or Macron’s incompetence; this is about the fall of the West.
More at URL above...
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Excellent article.
A little more:
The United States is different only in that it is a few decades behind. Conservatives here do have an elite (although a much smaller, less influential one than liberals), which is divided between those who support Trump and those who don’t (although the latter is quickly disappearing). Nevertheless, many conservatives fear that Trump may be the last Republican president before the inevitable decline brought on by liberals’ stranglehold on the culture. Once that decline comes, Americans will take to the streets and voice their grievances like the French people are doing now.
As I posted in another thread several days' back:
"After Trump, the deluge...."
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As France braces for another round of violent protests this weekend in Paris and the rest of the country, embattled French President Emmanuel Macron is a missing man as his government tries to curb the chaos caused in part by his unpopular plan to hike gas taxes.
Macron swept into power in 2017, having emerged out of obscurity less than a year earlier. Espousing his own brand of centrism, he has presented himself on the world stage as a spokesman for multilateralism and internationalism against a nationalist wave moving through Europe.
While he has regularly been seen on world stages, including the United Nations and the U.S. Congress, he has been conspicuous by his absence this week, choosing to keep away from the limelight as his government attempts to deal with the issues being protested by the “yellow jacket†protesters who have protested and even rioted in cities over France in recent weeks.
Macron had initially stood firm on the hikes, saying they were necessary to combat climate change and France’s reliance on oil. But on Wednesday, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced that the government was scrapping the tax hike altogether. A government spokesman also suggested on French radio that a wealth tax that Macron ended last year could be re-introduced.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/emmanuel-macron-goes-awol-as-protests-violence-plague-paris (https://www.foxnews.com/world/emmanuel-macron-goes-awol-as-protests-violence-plague-paris)
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Ya, go with the wealth tax and watch your national wealth decline... The wealth will simply seep out of the country out of reach... Idiots...
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This was the same asswipe mocking Trump last month. Looks like he is hiding in his bedroom with his mom now.
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This was the same asswipe mocking Trump last month. Looks like he is hiding in his bedroom with his mom now.
Mom/wife...
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Sounds like the usual empty suit you'd expect from the globalist types.
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Some of this may be stoked by Russia:
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dt4sYdDW4AAuaY6.jpg:large)
https://twitter.com/alexandrelatsa/status/1071342577465593856
Honestly, one has to look at all angles.
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Tear gas, mass arrests as new Yellow Vest protests hit Paris
France24, Dec 8, 2018
Paris police detained over 500 people Saturday as fresh anti-government Yellow Vest protests hit the capital, with similar protests taking place all over France.
Shouts of "Macron, resign" mingled with the tear gas near the famous Champs-Élysées avenue, the scene last Saturday of the worst rioting in Paris for decades.
A forklift truck driver who gave his name as Denis said he was planning, like others, to march on Macron's presidential palace in anger against a leader who they say only looks out for the rich.
"I'm here for my son," said the 30-year-old, who had travelled down to Paris from the Normandy port of Caen. "I can't let him live in a country where the poor are exploited."
Prime Minister Édouard Philippe said 481 people had been detained in Paris as police carried out checks on people arriving at train stations and at protest hotspots such as the Champs-Élysées and the Bastille monument.
Among them were dozens arrested for carrying masks, hammers, slingshots and rocks that could be used to attack police.
Shops, museums, the Eiffel Tower and many metro stations were closed, while top-flight football matches and concerts have been cancelled.
Last weekend's violence, which saw some 200 cars torched and the Arc de Triomphe vandalised, shook France and plunged Macron's government into its deepest crisis so far.
More: https://www.france24.com/en/20181208-paris-lockdown-france-yellow-vests-gilets-jaunes-anti-macron-riots-protests (https://www.france24.com/en/20181208-paris-lockdown-france-yellow-vests-gilets-jaunes-anti-macron-riots-protests)
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Paris riots: VIOLENCE ERUPTS as protesters clash with police - TANKS and TEAR GAS deployed
Daily Express/UK, Dec 8, 2018
More than 500 French demonstrators were arrested after police found them with weapons including hammers and baseball bats.
Thousands of police were deployed across France ahead of the chaos, with 8,000 in Paris.
Furious protestors have billed the weekend as "Act IV" in a dramatic challenge to Mr Macron, despite the President's climbdown over the unpopular fuel tax reforms.
More: https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1056082/paris-protests-riots-gilets-jaunes-emmanuel-macron-tax-reform (https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1056082/paris-protests-riots-gilets-jaunes-emmanuel-macron-tax-reform)
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I just read that the yellow vests are now at EU HQ in Brussels and some protests have spread to Holland.
That has the makings of a much bigger deal. Think fall of Berlin Wall.
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Is Paris Burning?
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Merging all French/Paris riots threads, taking a lesson from one of the Mods doing it about last weekend. Will sticky this as well. Other threads will be merged on this.
Note sure if I should just generalize post #1 as "French Protests" perhaps would be proper.
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More on how this isn't just simple French folk protesting high taxes:
... By midafternoon in Paris, more radical elements and professional vandals — known as “casseurs,†or “breakers†— had ripped down plywood barricades that had been placed over the windows of nearly every business in hopes of preventing smashing and looting.
The Champs-Élysées was quickly covered in tear gas, and hundreds of people beat a hasty retreat down the avenue.
In some areas, the casseurs — young men dressed in black — could easily be distinguished from the Yellow Vests, often middle-aged men from the countryside.
In at least two instances on the Champs-Élysées, Yellow Vests replaced protective boards ripped down from shop windows by the casseurs.
And Yellow Vests looked on in horror and bemusement as vandals smashed in the windows of a sporting-goods store and made off with boxes of sneakers on one chic avenue around the Arc de Triomphe.
“This is just madness,†said a middle-aged Yellow Vest, Franck Morlat, a train driver who had traveled from central France. “Totally unacceptable.†...
NYT via MSN (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/%E2%80%98yellow-vests%E2%80%99-descend-on-paris-as-police-arrest-hundreds-and-fire-tear-gas/ar-BBQF5sP)
**nononono*
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Liveuamap
â€Verified account @Liveuamap
1h1 hour ago
Plate at Ukrainian Cultural center in Paris was damaged by Yellow Vests yesterday
https://twitter.com/Liveuamap/status/1071855772366241800
https://france.liveuamap.com/en/2018/9-december-plate-at-ukrainian-cultural-center-in-paris-was
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More on how this isn't just simple French folk protesting high taxes:NYT via MSN (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/%E2%80%98yellow-vests%E2%80%99-descend-on-paris-as-police-arrest-hundreds-and-fire-tear-gas/ar-BBQF5sP)
**nononono*
Leftest hijacked their protest... The leftest want another French revolution where they destroy anyone too wealthy.
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I think so. Never let the left co-opt your legitimate protest.
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I watched one of the yellow jackets interviewed. They are a conservative movement. They also are not violent and one of them said he was aghast when he saw some wearing the yellow jackets were committing acts of vandalism, even violence. I guess, that's a problem, you can't control everyone.
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France, pounded by protests, seeks answers
Macron to address nation Monday
By Sean Philip Cotter | Boston Herald
December 9, 2018 at 10:03 pm
French President Emmanuel Macron is preparing to break nearly a month’s silence in the face of increasingly agitated and violent protests spurred by populist anger at what’s seen as a government that’s cast the working people aside.
Running battles between “yellow vest†protesters and police that left at least 71 injured in the French capital and caused widespread damage in cities around France raged Saturday for the fourth weekend in a row.
The list of grievances by the largely rural, lower-middle class protesters clad in yellow emergency vests is myriad and growing, but is largely based around measures to increase buying power.
“It’s working people and lower-middle-class people mostly because you have seen a wage stagnation in most of these European countries and unemployment across the board,†Celia Belin, a French-American foreign policy analyst at the Brookings Institute, told the Herald. “It becomes a question of social justice and dignity.â€
Belin, who’s from Dijon, said Macron already had made some unpopular moves before the gas tax, including levies on pensioners and cuts to housing subsidies. ... More (https://www.bostonherald.com/2018/12/09/france-pounded-by-protests-seeks-answers/)
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(https://memegenerator.net/img/instances/76771349.jpg)
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French police warn the government: ‘We’re at breaking point’
The protests began in France four weeks ago against the government’s planned fuel tax hikes and got off to a mainly peaceful start.
But since then they have grown increasingly violent and the list of grievances and gripes against President Emmanuel Macron and his government have ballooned.
While the anger and hatred of protesters is directed at the president, it is being take out on the country’s police forces. For the last three Saturday’s they have come under a hail of cobblestones and bottles, had fireworks aimed at them and at times simply been given the run around by rioters and looters.
Read more at: https://johnib.wordpress.com/2018/12/10/french-police-warn-the-government-were-at-breaking-point/
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I don't want to laugh at anyone's misery, but it's fun to see hell breaking breaking loose and Macron being paralyzed, after being so smug just a few weeks ago.