Such stories can never be verified
French
president was ready to flee from Yellow Vests in helicopter
French
President Emmanuel Macron, who was hiding in the Élysée Palace
during “Act IV” of the Yellow Vest protests in Paris, had a
helicopter on standby to escape in case protesters broke through the
barriers.
15
December, 2018
In
an unprecedented show of security, including 500 republican guards, a
hundred police and gendarmes armed with water cannons, drones, and
other anti-riot measures, Macron was ready to flee the city in a
helicopter, Le
Dauphine reported.
The
French leader, during the Benalla
affair,
reportedly said: “Let them come get me…” while he was also
hiding from the media.
Apparently
some Yellow Vests remembered his remark, and before the demonstration
on Saturday, December 8, they promised to march on the presidential
palace, according to Le
Canard enchaîné.
The
daily staff at the palace had been asked to stay at home.
In
a declared no-man’s land security forces surrounded the Concorde,
the Elysée and the National Assembly, without counting the 8 000
members of the police stationed in Paris with armoured vehicles.
And
during that time, Jupiter,
according to several witnesses, was quite pale, noted the satirical
weekly. Jupiter is
the nickname of Macron.
Witnesses
at the Élysée last Saturday described the French leader as
“marble-like” facing the protests which saw high levels of
violence in Paris but also in other French cities like Toulouse and
Bordeaux.
The
protests have weakened the French president greatly. He has since
offered several more concessions including a 100 euro per month
increase in the minimum wage as well as tax breaks for overtime work
and calling for companies to give employees untaxed year-end bonuses.
French
author Michel Houellebecq has meanwhile warned that the “range of
permissible opinions” that people are allowed to express publicly
is “steadily shrinking”.
In
an opinion piece for American magazine Harper’s,
the author warned that freedom of speech was being eroded.
Houellebecq,
in his novel Submission,
warned of an Islamist takeover of France. The book was published on
the same day as the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
“The
Americans are no longer prepared to die for the freedom of the
press,” writes Houellebecq, adding, “Besides, what freedom of the
press? Ever since I was twelve years old, I’ve watched the range of
opinions permissible in the press steadily shrinking.”
He
cited the ongoing witch hunt in France against conservative writer
Éric Zemmour, author of The
French Suicide,
who argues that France has been damaged by neo-liberalism, Islam and
political correctness.
In
2002, Houellebecq was put on trial for “racial hatred” but later
acquitted after describing Islam as “the dumbest religion” during
an interview. Like Dutch anti-immigration politician Geert Wilders,
he has had to rely on armed protection due to threats against his
life by jihadists since.
Houellebecq
also pointed out that Europe has always been in a historical struggle
against Islam and that “that struggle has simply returned to the
foreground”.
“It’s
my belief that we in Europe have neither a common language, nor
common values, nor common interests, that, in a word, Europe doesn’t
exist, and that it will never constitute a people or support a
possible democracy (see the etymology of the term), simply because it
doesn’t want to constitute a people,” writes Houellebecq. His
anti-European remarks blend in with a popular trend in the mainstream
US media.
“In
short, Europe is just a dumb idea that has gradually turned into a
bad dream, from which we shall eventually wake up.”
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