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Macron's
Fall Could Bring a Nationalist, Conservative Takeover of Europe
(Steve Turley Video)
France
was the lone holdout, now it looks like it too will join the
Nationalist wave taking over Europe, dumping the despised Macron.
This is the globalist position – VERY dangerous.
France’s
Dangerous Yellow Vest Protesters
3
December, 2018
(Bloomberg)
-- The “Yellow Vests” protests now challenging President Emmanuel
Macron have exposed a widening hole in the center of French
politics—created by Macron himself.
It
was Macron whose election in May 2017 all but obliterated the two
establishment parties that had run France for 30 years. His own
political movement had been launched less than a year before and his
closest opponent for the presidency was from the far-right. By
positioning himself as a reformer, Macron, 40, had hoped to establish
a centrist consensus.
Instead,
with his popularity now at record lows and his Republic on the Move
far from becoming a real political party, the president faces
widespread opposition across the country, especially outside major
cities. The “Yellow Vests”—“gilets jaunes” in
French—reflect France’s frustration at a young leader whose
agenda is perceived as favoring the rich and whose manner is regarded
as aloof and arrogant.
“The
‘gilets jaunes’ movement will probably peter out, but not the
anger, which is likely to go on and take new forms maybe more
dangerous for Macron,” said Jim Shields, a professor of French
politics at Warwick University in the U.K. “It’s hard to see how
he can complete controversial reforms like pensions and unemployment
insurance without yet more blood on the pavement.”
The
grassroots movement, organized through social media and without real
leadership, has led to two weeks of sporadic and mostly peaceful
blockades of roads, fuel depots and warehouses. A protest Saturday in
Paris exploded into violence that left over 100 injured and more than
400 arrested, as well as burned cars and looted stores in the heart
of the capital. Named after the colored vests motorists must keep in
their cars for emergencies, the campaign began as a protest against
higher gasoline taxes to reduce emissions. It’s now expanded to
other demands and has the support of three-quarters of the French
public, polls show.
“We
are talking about cost of living and Macron is talking ecology,”
said Joffre Denis, a 33-year old fireman who had come 125 miles from
his home in the north of France to Paris, wearing a yellow vest at
Saturday’s protest. “His solution for people who can’t afford
food by the end of the month is to buy solar panels and electric
cars.” Denis said that after 17 years on the job, he takes home
2,300 euros ($2,600) a month.
“We
pay more and more for fewer and fewer services. Where is the money
going?” he asked. He wants the movement to focus on finding leaders
at the local level and slimming its demands: “We need to focus on
the basics: taxes, bringing back the wealth tax, politicians’
salaries, pensions, minimum wage.”
As
he spoke, standing on Avenue Marceau near the Arc de Triomphe, a line
of riot police blocked access to the monument and tear gas was being
fired on the other side of the circle. Denis said he condemned the
violence.
The
movement itself is split between moderates who want to create a
structure to negotiate with the government, and radicals who reject
any form of leadership. An attempt by eight local spokespeople to
create a national committee was disbanded after four days when they
received threats. Only two of the eight invited leaders showed up for
a planned meeting Friday with Prime Minister Edouard Philippe.
The
Yellow Vests at this stage aren’t likely to evolve into a political
party like Italy’s Five Star Movement because they lack a
charismatic leader, said Sylvain Boulouque, a historian who has
written books about extremist parties. But there’s no way their
votes will go to the center-right Republicans or the center-left
Socialists, the main establishment parties. Neither party has
recovered from being marginalized in the 2017 election, the second
round of which pitted Macron against far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
“This
is a movement that holds all institutions and the establishment in
disdain,” Boulouque said. “They aren’t going to vote for
parties whom they hold responsible for the past 30 years.”
Most
Yellow Vests supporters will split their votes between Le Pen’s
National Rally and Jean-Luc Melenchon’s far-left France Unbowed,
Boulouque said. Together, they received 41 percent of the vote in the
first round of presidential voting in 2017.
Although
polls show the French public overwhelmingly supports the demands of
the Yellow Vests, respondents don't see anyone else handling the
situation better than Macron. An Ifop poll released Nov. 22, after
the Yellow Vests’ first major strike, said 26 percent thought Le
Pen would do better and 21 percent chose Melenchon. The center-right
establishment party was chosen by only 15 percent and 6 percent went
for the Socialists—who controlled both the presidency and the
parliament until Macron arrived.
That
hasn’t kept other parties from jumping onto the Yellow Vests’
bandwagon.
“All
this violence is the fault of the government refusing to listen, of
its arrogance, its disdain for common people,” Le Pen said on BFM
TV Saturday. Recent polls have shown that her anti-immigrant,
anti-European Union party will get the most French votes in next
May’s European Parliament elections.
Macron
himself was in Argentina Saturday attending a G-20 summit. He
returned Sunday and went straight to visit the damage to the Arc de
Triomphe before holding an emergency meeting with top ministers.
There was no statement after the 90-minute session.
In
a speech Nov. 27 he outlined the need to maintain the gasoline taxes
as part of efforts to wean France off fossil fuels, but offered “town
hall-style” debates about the country’s environmental policies
and vague promises of reviewing future tax increases.
Macron
doesn’t face national elections until 2022 and has prided himself
on sticking to his policies no matter how low he goes in the polls,
saying the unpopular tax and labor law reforms he pushed through
early in his term will eventually pay off in higher growth and job
creation. He now faces two unpalatable choices: breaking his promises
not to back down on his program or further deepening his
unpopularity.
But
even several of his own deputies have said the government should
consider postponing gasoline tax increases planned for January, which
Macron’s ministers have so far ruled out.
Macron
hasn’t helped himself with some ill-judged comments, such as saying
on trips abroad that the French are resistant to change, or telling
an unemployed gardener in Paris in September that he just had to
cross the road to get a job. Many protesters Saturday turned those
comments around, writing on their vests: “Macron, we’re crossing
the road.”
