French Gilets Jaunes protesters. According to google translate, the sign reads "Macron the people sovereign advance". BBC/AFP.
The government of France has dropped the controversial green fuel tax from the 2019 budget after widespread protests from the Gilets Jaunes/Yellow Jackets protest. BBC. The protests have shaken France for the last three weekends and further protests are due on Saturday. The response from the government is not a complete suspension of the bill, but a six month delay. In addition, planned increases in gas and electricity charges have been postponed and tougher vehicle emissions standards have been put on hold.
My Comment:
Too little too late, would be my guess. The time to do this was after the first weekend of protests. It is far too late now for half measures. The Yellow Jackets not only want this tax hike gone, they want lower taxes in general. This dropping of a price hike doesn't make anything better for the lower and middle classes, it's just a promise that things won't get worse for one fiscal year, after which all bets are off.
Indeed, it's almost insulting to think that the French people would go along with this. They get nothing from this deal and I doubt it will do anything to quell the massive protests that are erupting throughout France right now. It might even anger them further, if such a thing is possible.
What might work would be an actual tax cut. From what I understand French people pay about $7.00 a gallon for gas and most of that is taxes. If they were to reduce that price to $5.00 a gallon or lower it might be enough to quell these protests, or at least erode popular support for them.Same with any other major tax cuts. I doubt that will happen though.
Emmanuel Macron has been massively tone deaf during these protests. Marie Antoinette famously (and perhaps attributed) said "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche". Let them eat cake (or brioches). Well Macron is essentially saying to the French people let them use green energy if they can't afford to buy gasoline. Everyone remembers what happened to Marie Antoinette, so it looks like Macron hasn't learned from his own history.
I'm expecting massive protests on Saturday, to the point where there could be violence. There actually has been quite a bit of protest this week, with ambulances blocking streets, students joining the protests and fuel depots being blocked. The situation is a lot worse for the French government than the western media is admitting. It's to the point where if I was in France I would be stocking up on food, water, trade goods and weapons in preparation for what could be a very chaotic and dangerous transition period, or even civil war.
It almost seems inevitable that the French government will collapse. I can't imagine Macron surviving this and I am not even sure if I am talking about his political career or his life. I've never seen a Western country so angry and it even looks worse than the situation in Ukraine. I don't think anything will satisfy the Yellow Jackets other than a new government.
On a more personal note, I plan on watching the protests live on Saturday morning. Since it will be early in the morning and I won't be home for all of it, I will probably miss some of it. But I do plan on watching streams for awhile and may even live tweet things. You can always find my tweets here. I also cross post on Gab if you are on there or just don't like Twitter.
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