French yellow vest protesters set life-threatening fires, smashed up luxury stores and clashed with police Saturday in the 18th straight weekend of demonstrations against President Emmanuel Macron. Large plumes of smoke rose above the rioting on Paris' landmark Champs-Elysees Avenue, and a mother and her child were just barely saved from a building blaze.Limited success has been the French way. There's more:
French police tried to contain the demonstrators with limited success.
Yellow vest groups representing teachers, unemployed people and labor unions were among those that organized dozens of rallies and marches Saturday in the capital and around France.The two takeaways?
Protesters dismiss Macron's national debate on the economy as empty words and a campaign ploy by Macron to gain support for the European Parliament elections in May. Protesters are angry over high taxes and Macron policies seen as coddling business.
"Those who participated in this great debate are mostly retirees and upper middle class, meaning Macron's electorate, even though we understood this great national debate was supposed to respond to the yellow vest crisis," lawyer and protester Francois Boulo told Europe-1 radio.
- Great debates are mostly crap; and
- There will be no response that threatens a bureaucrat's rice bowl
The yellow vests aren't coherent themselves, of course. But they aren't going away.
6 comments:
My understanding is that any anarchist can put oh a yellow vest these days and go "wilding."
My understanding is that any anarchist can put oh a yellow vest these days and go "wilding."
There’s some of that. I get the sense that groups that ordinarily would be at each other’s throats are wearing yellow vests to confront a shared enemy, the bloated and corrupt administrative state.
The Yellow Vests are still at it? Why doesn't this appear on my news feed?
Maybe if there was just some way these could be tied to Trump. Mueller should get right on that.
Notice where they are and what they're smashing. It's the restaurants and shops patronized by the wealthy, privileged ruling class in central Paris. They're telling them that they're not going to be so cheaply bought off in the future, hearkening back in a way to 1789. The new aristos had better pray that Sir Percy comes back to rescue them.
Or are these just the socialists/Marxists/SJW folks who think they can create wealth by destroying it?
Or are these just the socialists/Marxists/SJW folks who think they can create wealth by destroying it?
Probably some of them are, but SJWs aren't usually turning on guys like Macron. The left/right distinctions we have the in the U.S. are only of limited utility in understanding what's happening in France. I'm writing about it because I'm trying to figure it out myself.
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