Yellow Vests Protests Escalate, Present Serious Threat To Macron and the EU
The Yellow Vests Are Winning and Causing Damage To The EU.Speed light cameras have been wiped out, the French government is spending billions to try and deal with protests and now the EU bond market is being rocked by the Yellow Vests protests.At this point it seems the only course of action for the French government and Emmanuel Macron is capitulation. If they don't give in to the yellow vests protests the strife could continue and cause serious destabilization in the EU.
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The Yellow Vests protest in France continues to escalate.
The latest news, 60% of red light cameras have been destroyed by protesters.
We're now hearing that they're calling for a bank run tomorrow, which means they're all going to go and try and withdraw as much money as possible, which could spell economic turmoil for France.
But it could also bleed out into the European Union.
Aside from this direct action, France is already spending tons of money to try and police the protest, and now protests have been spreading across Europe.
Ultimately, this may lead to disaster for the European Union.
So brace yourselves, because tomorrow, another mass protest is going to happen, and we will likely see more rioting.
But today, let's take a look at the latest news and see just how the Yellow Vest protest is causing damage to the French government.
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From the BBC, yellow vests knock out 60% of all speed cameras in France.
Members of the Yellow Vest protest movement have vandalized almost 60% of France's entire speed camera network, the Interior Minister said.
Christopher Castaner said the willful damage was a threat to road safety and put lives in danger.
Some protesters feel speed cameras are solely a revenue-generating measure which takes money from the poor.
The BBC's Hugh Scofield in Paris said evidence of the vandalism is visible to anyone driving around France with radar cameras covered in paint or black tape to stop them from working.
But the extent of the damage, now believed to affect more than half of all 3,200 speed
cameras in the country's network, was unknown until Mr. Kastner's statement on Thursday.
He said the devices had been neutralized, attacked or destroyed by members of the protest
movement.
Speed limits in France were already...
People are destroying speed cameras.
People are smashing windows.
limit on many roads from 90 kilometers an hour to 80 kilometers an hour early last year.
Protesters angry about the increase in fuel taxes complained of the rising costs of a
commute for those priced out of living in urban centers and turned their ire on other
costs such as toll roads and speed cameras.
So we're seeing direct action.
People are destroying speed cameras.
People are smashing windows.
There's general protests, rioting, and cars being set on fire.
But now we have economic damage from Reuters.
French companies bruised by Yellow Vest's protests.
French companies have this week revealed some 60 million euros of lost business from anti-government protests rocking the country, which could augur badly for the likes of Supermarket Change, Casino, and Carrefour.
And this is where it could possibly get extremely bad for the European Union.
Once again from Reuters, France's yellow vest protests could shake up eurozone bond markets.
France's response to yellow vest protests could be a turning point for eurozone bond markets if
it kicks off an era of increased public borrowing in the bloc and loads additional debt onto a
market already nervous over the removal of ECB stimulus.
Increased public spending could be the way out for governments struggling to contain discontent
over living standards and may face a strong challenge from populist politicians at May's
European Parliament elections. But if that pushes up government bond supply, it may also increase
concern about some member states' long-term ability to service debt and could hamstring the
European Central Bank's plan to lift interest rates.
Reuters says, central to this situation in France, where people have taken to the streets in recent weeks wearing brightly colored yellow vests, protesting against President Emmanuel Macron's economic policies.
In response, Macron pledged tax cuts for pensioners and minimum wage increases that will cost France an additional 8 to 10 billion euros.
With Italy and Spain already ramping up 2019 spending plans, and even Germany reviewing its long-standing conservative fiscal stance, debt could be on the rise again for the bloc.
I'm not one to typically talk about bond markets and investment or anything like that, but we can see that there is an incoming instability in the economic market of the European Union, and it shows us how France is desperately trying to get a hold of what's going on.
Eight to ten billion euros to appease the protesters.
But not only that, they've got to pay for the policing around the country and now there's going to be lost revenue from these red light cameras.
This is going to bleed out of France.
It's going to affect other countries.
But this protest action might actually have the biggest impact.
French protesters want to set off bank run with withdrawals.
Activists from French protest movement encouraged supporters Wednesday to set off a bank run by emptying their accounts while the government urged citizens to express their discontent in a national debate instead of weekly demonstrations disrupting the streets of Paris.
The movement's adherents said they hoped the banking action will force the French government to heed their demands, especially giving citizens the right to propose and vote on new laws.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe gave details Wednesday of a big debate the government plans to start next week in all of the regions of France.
We want it to be rich, impartial, and fruitful, Philippe said.
The debates will focus on four main topics, climate change, democratic issues, taxes, and public services, the Prime Minister said.
Anyone can propose a local event, and an internet platform will provide another venue for discussion.
At this point, debate probably won't work.
I can understand why the French government wants to do it.
They want to bring people together for a conversation to try and abate the violence.
But it's probably not going to work.
People are angry.
And as long as the government keeps resisting and only offering up crumbs, as the protesters have called it, then they're likely going to see more protesting, more rioting, more anger, which will only lead to more anger.
See, every time a protest happens, and the police are seen on camera hitting a protester or something of that nature, it makes more protesters want to come out.
Thus, sometimes, the only thing you can do is give up.
Macron should probably resign, lest France face more economic turmoil.
And this bleeds out into other European nations.
But what makes this protest so interesting is that it's not a left or right thing.
It's really a class-based issue.
And you've got the left and the right both claiming it's kind of about them.
The Daily Beast take on the story.
The far right is trying to co-opt the Yellow Vests.
The French protests have participants on the left and right.
But splinter movements abroad draw more xenophobes and anti-government conspiracy theorists.
In the story, they point out that you've got people from all over the political compass.
The authoritarian right and left, and the libertarian left and right.
I do want to make one point, though.
People often show extreme vandalism and anarchy symbols as if this represents the libertarian left.
It absolutely does not.
Anybody who's going to use physical violence, this is not libertarian.
It's authoritarian.
It's the use of violence and the assertion of authority and force against others.
This violence should be in this quadrant.
This should be someone smoking pot saying, I don't care.
But while people on the left want to claim the right is trying to co-opt it, you can say something similar of the left.
All you have to do is hop over to reddit.com slash r slash anarchism.
And you'll see that they've got several posts in favor of the yellow vests.
This one about speed cameras in France.
This one that says the yellow vest movement is planning on hitting the capitalists and elites right where it hurts in their banking accounts.
I can't speak for Europeans.
I can only speak as to what I've heard and what I've talked about with other people who live in Europe.
But it seems like there's a growing resentment towards the elites.
There's one reason, in my opinion, why I think so many people, very powerful people, try to push the culture war in the United States, in Europe, making it about race instead of class.
Because when all factions are united, it becomes a class-based issue.
When the left and the right both agree something is wrong in France, you see the yellow vests protest, and you see them sprouting to other countries.
When you make it about skin color, you end up with wealthy celebrities criticizing poor people for having privilege.
They make the conversation, they make the fight about something that can't be changed.
But the reality is very powerful individuals in the European Union who aren't elected are making decisions for the rest of these people.
They're trying to enact policies that will benefit the wealthy and harm the poor and the working class.
And thus you will see people snap.
Enough.
France pushed too far.
They thought they could continue to raise taxes.
They thought they could cut taxes on the rich.
And they thought that they could impose their ideology on a poor working class group who finally said enough and rose up to protest.
There is another really interesting aspect of what's happening, though, because it certainly seems like police do have support.
The Washington Post has this story.
Crowdfunding pits French police versus yellow vest protesters.
They say, as the protests go on, which side can raise more money, protesters or police?
So far, the police seem to be winning.
An online crowdfunding campaign for officers hurt in confrontations with protesters raised more than one million euros by Thursday, days after it was launched.
The fundraising effort came in response to a similar but more controversial appeal for donations to benefit a boxer captured on video Saturday while punching police officers at a Paris protest.
The drive, on behalf of boxer Christoph Dettinger, was promoted by generating money for his legal bills, but drew broad outrage as encouragement of violence.
Online fundraising site Leachy suspended the campaign Tuesday after it raised some 120,000 euros.
The fund offended President Emmanuel Macron's government and the police departments that deployed officers to control crowds of sometimes violent demonstrators every weekend since the Yellow Vest Movement kicked off November 17th.
The boxer acknowledged his behavior went too far and turned himself in to authorities.
Dettinger was ordered to remain in custody until his trial next month on charges of violence against public officials.
The fact that this man turned himself in is really interesting.
There's another viral video that went around where a yellow vest protester grabbed a black bloc anti-fascist type who was vandalizing windows so that the police could come and arrest them.
It would seem that the average working class individuals protesting doesn't want to see the violence.
But the interesting thing about this movement is that it seems like it's a genuine populist movement.
One of my biggest concerns about the protests is that if the government doesn't get a handle on things and actually start giving in to certain demands, we can see an extremist faction start to take over and it could be the far left or the far right.
And I think most people would agree.
You don't want to see the fringe elements of the extremist traditionalists and authoritarians of either side start to take over and then push their demands.
But if the government doesn't get the people what they need and give them what they want, that's likely what's going to happen.
We will see certain people start to rise up, become leaders, and push their beliefs onto the entirety of the crowd.
It may make protests smaller, but it will force the demands of a fringe element.
This is why it's very important for France to say, what do you want?
Let's make it happen.
Instead of constantly going out and fighting with the people.
But you know what?
I don't have all the answers.
I don't know exactly what they should do.
All I know is that tomorrow we're going to see more of it again.
And I've already showed you the stories about the economic turmoil in France, which again will bleed out into the rest of the EU and could very well impact us.
But let me know what you think in the comments below.
We'll keep the conversation going.
How do you feel about the Yellow Vests protests?
Who do you think, if any faction does, do you think the left will start to take a lead?
Will the right?
Or will it remain a strictly class-based system?
Do you think the French government will give up?
Again, comment below.
We'll keep the conversation going.
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