This wasn’t the first violent episode – two people have died since the start of the spontaneous movement, sparked by social media anger – but the main scene wasn’t the spectacular Parisian face-off, which moved from the Champs Élysées to the rest of the city. Far more telling are the protests popping up everywhere else, in what is called “la France des ronds-points” (France of the roundabouts). On 24 November, there were more than 1,600 protests, drawing 100,000 protesters across the country. At the weekend, there were 130,000 demonstrators, with more than 580 roadblocks. [...]
The fuel tax, Macron says, is a necessary measure to tackle climate change. He is right in identifying that problem, and the yellow vests do not deny this: among the demands of their newly appointed board, they ask for a “citizen assembly to debate the ecological transition”. But they have more pressing concerns, concerns that Macron’s policies ignore, they say. What started out as a revolt against fuel prices is morphing into a full-blown rejection of Macron’s fiscal agenda. [...]
Resentment against the “president of the rich”, as Macron is known, and against the urban elite who can focus on climate change because they don’t rely on their car to live, will only wind down if the yellow vests see an improvement in their economic power. The price of the ecological transition, like taxes in general, must be seen as a collective effort, not something to be paid only by the French “squeezed middle”.
No comments:
Post a Comment