EU Le Gilets Jaune protests thread - Do you hear the people sing? Singing the songs of angry men?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-46233560

One protester has died and dozens were injured as almost a quarter of a million people took to the streets of France, angry at rising fuel prices.

The female protester who died was struck after a driver surrounded by demonstrators panicked and accelerated.

The "yellow vests", so-called after the high-visibility jackets they are required to carry in their cars, blocked motorways and roundabouts.

They accuse President Emmanuel Macron of abandoning "the little people".

Mr Macron has not so far commented on the protests, some of which have seen demonstrators call for him to resign.

But he admitted earlier in the week that he had not "really managed to reconcile the French people with their leaders".

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Nonetheless, he accused his political opponents of hijacking the movement in order to block his reform programme.

What has happened so far?
Some 244,000 people took part in protests across France, the interior ministry said in its latest update.

It said 106 people were injured during the day, five seriously, with 52 people arrested.

Most of the protests have been taking place without incident although several of the injuries came when drivers tried to force their way through protesters.

Image copyrightREUTERS
Image captionA driver forces a car through a group of protesters in Donges, western France
Chantal Mazet, 63, was killed in the south-eastern Savoy region when a driver who was taking her daughter to hospital panicked at being blocked by about 50 demonstrators, who were striking the roof of her vehicle, and drove into them.

The driver has been taken into police custody in a state of shock.

In Paris protesters approaching the Élysée Palace, the president's official residence, were repelled with tear gas.

Why are drivers on the warpath?
The price of diesel, the most commonly used fuel in French cars, has risen by around 23% over the past 12 months to an average of €1.51 (£1.32; $1.71) per litre, its highest point since the early 2000s, AFP news agency reports.

World oil prices did rise before falling back again but the Macron government raised its hydrocarbon tax this year by 7.6 cents per litre on diesel and 3.9 cents on petrol, as part of a campaign for cleaner cars and fuel.

Image copyrightEPA
Image captionTear gas was used to disperse protesters in Paris
The decision to impose a further increase of 6.5 cents on diesel and 2.9 cents on petrol on 1 January 2019 was seen as the final straw.

Speaking on Wednesday, the president blamed world oil prices for three-quarters of the price rise. He also said more tax on fossil fuels was needed to fund renewable energy investments.

How big is the movement?
It has broad support. Nearly three-quarters of respondents to a poll by the Elabe institute backed the Yellow Vests and 70% wanted the government to reverse the fuel tax hikes.

More than half of French people who voted for Mr Macron support the protests, Elabe's Vincent Thibault told AFP.

Image copyrightREUTERS
Image captionPolice attend as protesters block a motorway in Antibes
"The expectations and discontent over spending power are fairly broad, it's not just something that concerns rural France or the lower classes," he said.

The BBC's Lucy Williamson in Paris says the movement has grown via social media into a broad and public criticism of Mr Macron's economic policies.

Are opposition politicians involved?
They have certainly tried to tap into it. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who was defeated by Mr Macron in the second round of the presidential election, has been encouraging it on Twitter.

She said: "The government shouldn't be afraid of French people who come to express their revolt and do it in a peaceful fashion."

Image Copyright @MLP_officiel@MLP_OFFICIEL
Report

Laurent Wauquiez, leader of the centre-right Republicans, called on the Macron government to scrap the next planned increase in carbon tax on fossil fuels in January to offset rising vehicle fuel prices.

Mr Castaner has described Saturday's action as a "political protest with the Republicans behind it".

Olivier Faure, leader of the left-wing Socialist Party said the movement - which has no single leader and is not linked to any trade union - had been "born outside political parties".

"People want politicians to listen to them and respond. Their demand is to have purchasing power and financial justice," he said.

Image Copyright @faureolivier@FAUREOLIVIER
Report

Is there any room for compromise?
On Wednesday, the government announced action to help poor families pay their energy and transport bills.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced that 5.6 million households would receive energy subsidies. Currently 3.6 million receive them.

A state scrappage bonus on polluting vehicles would also be doubled for France's poorest families, he said, and fuel tax credits would be brought in for people who depend on their cars for work.

Protesters have mocked the president relentlessly as "Micron" or "Macaron" (Macaroon) or simply Manu, the short form of Emmanuel, which he famously scolded a student for using.

Image Copyright @BBCWorld@BBCWORLD
Report

To be honest, I don't blame the driver at all.

 

[Shaka Brah]

Just as I always said about Antifa, especially the American version of them, all they really are are just Neoliberals with Violence. Here in the states they are nothing more than the shock troopers of the DNC

They always were. In the Weimar Republic they were one arm of the Bolshevik invasion, not some organic group. The same kinds of people who funded those groups back then are funding them now for the same reasons.

 

[not william stenchever]

If you need evidence that the world is unjust: the french police won't be firing their unreasonably high velocity riot munitions at the pro-macron antifags from helicopters.

 

[KingCoelacanth]

This is the leader of the red scarves apparently (or at least who they want people to think is their leader)
French media has been playing up the protests as anti EU (which they mostly are), as well as anti-migrant, anti-semetic, etc. (which they mostly are not, unfortunately). The counter protests are for people to bootlick for the EU and virtue signal about diversity.
I'm also going to assume that most of these people either have well-payed white collar jobs, are migrants who have everything paid for them by the state, or were simply paid to protest (It seems that *someone* had organized to have pro-macron protesters bused in from all over the country)

Edit:
It appears the counter-protests were a major flop, less than 300 in attendance

 

[Drycantelope]

This is the leader of the red scarves apparently (or at least who they want people to think is their leader)
French media has been playing up the protests as anti EU (which they mostly are), as well as anti-migrant, anti-semetic, etc. (which they mostly are not, unfortunately). The counter protests are for people to bootlick for the EU and virtue signal about diversity.
I'm also going to assume that most of these people either have well-payed white collar jobs, are migrants who have everything paid for them by the state, or were simply paid to protest (It seems that *someone* had organized to have pro-macron protesters bused in from all over the country)

Is that a man or a woman?

 

[not william stenchever]

Is that a man or a woman?

The answer is "Yes."

 

[Azovka]

The #RedScarves march is happening atm with a lower turnout than the Yellow Vests’ 11th protest, and yet they have way more media coverage. Wonder why.

Also, funny note - the motto of this #RedScarves movement is “Stop la Violence” - “ Stop the Violence”, and yet, when a woman next to the march started yelling “Macron resign”, one of the protesters slapped her.

Here’s the link to the video complete with the boohing and the slap. https://twitter.com/expliciteja/status/1089526273351827456?s=21

Remember, kids. Say no to violence. Unless it’s against people that disagree with you. In which case, slap away.

 

[Waman Respecter]

This is the leader of the red scarves apparently (or at least who they want people to think is their leader)
French media has been playing up the protests as anti EU (which they mostly are), as well as anti-migrant, anti-semetic, etc. (which they mostly are not, unfortunately). The counter protests are for people to bootlick for the EU and virtue signal about diversity.
I'm also going to assume that most of these people either have well-payed white collar jobs, are migrants who have everything paid for them by the state, or were simply paid to protest (It seems that *someone* had organized to have pro-macron protesters bused in from all over the country)

Edit:
It appears the counter-protests were a major flop, less than 300 in attendance

The face of globohomo.

 

[MidUSA]

The answer is "Yes." "No"

FTFY

 

[AZ 594]

The #RedScarves march is happening atm with a lower turnout than the Yellow Vests’ 11th protest, and yet they have way more media coverage. Wonder why.

Also, funny note - the motto of this #RedScarves movement is “Stop la Violence” - “ Stop the Violence”, and yet, when a woman next to the march started yelling “Macron resign”, one of the protesters slapped her.

Here’s the link to the video complete with the boohing and the slap. https://twitter.com/expliciteja/status/1089526273351827456?s=21

Remember, kids. Say no to violence. Unless it’s against people that disagree with you. In which case, slap away.

“We denounce the insurrectional climate installed by the Yellow Vests. We also reject the threats and constant verbal abuse [suffered by non-Yellow Vests],” they said in their joint manifesto.
...
“Today, a lot of people are scared to leave their houses, to use the roads, to drive to their jobs.”
On the group’s website, multiple people recount how they’ve been verbally abused for not wearing the same reflective yellow west that the anti-government protesters wear, how they have been forced to sign petitions calling for President Emmanuel Macron’s resignation in order to get through roadblocks on their way to work, and how they have been accused of belonging to the bourgeoisie for not buying into the Yellow Vests demands.
...
The Facebook group “STOP, that’s enough now” was set up by 51-year-old aeronautics engineer Laurent Soulié from the southwestern city of Toulouse in mid-December to allow “the French who’ve stayed quiet for six weeks to finally have their say”.
In an interview with AFP earlier this week, he said that he saw the creation of the group as a necessity because the Yellow Vest protests did not appear to calm down at all despite the concessions made by the government to try to meet some of their demands.
“I have a house that needs a good coat of paint, I've been driving the same car for 12 years, and I go through my accounts at the end of every month to ensure I’ve not got overdrawn,” he said, refuting the “wealth” label some Yellow Vests have attributed to him.
Forty-one-year-old Caroline Garcin, a former nurse from the southern city of Montpellier and who lives on a disability allowance due to deafness, told AFP that she decided to join the Red Scarves after being verbally abused by Yellow Vest supporters at a roundabout in November because she didn’t wear a yellow reflective vest. “I felt totally alone in the world facing this wave of hatred,” she said, adding that after joining the Red Scarves, she found “a France that was enlightened, calm and respectful".
Garcin said that although she understands the Yellow Vests’ “sense of social and fiscal injustice”, she refuses to “be held hostage” by them, saying she finds it unacceptable to support a cause that “calls for a lynching or the killing of a cop”.

https://archive.is/oWrS3

This whole movements attempts at trying to appeal to the common man sound so forced.

 

[Coccxys]

The Facebook group “STOP, that’s enough now” was set up by 51-year-old aeronautics engineer Laurent Soulié from the southwestern city of Toulouse in mid-December to allow “the French who’ve stayed quiet for six weeks to finally have their say”.

Aeronautics in Toulouse? So works for Airbus since that is their main factory etc area. One guy turns up on a search of that name at Airbus...

Yeah, he seems like he's one of the poor downtrodden workers who're suffering not one of the elite with a vested interest in the government and it's globalist adgenda...

 

[Keystone]

https://archive.li/oWrS3

This whole movements attempts at trying to appeal to the common man sound so forced.

"Comment allez-vous, chers enfants?"

 

[Clem Fandango]

https://archive.li/oWrS3

This whole movements attempts at trying to appeal to the common man sound so forced.

No kidding. In fact, doesn't Red Scarves sound like exactly what you'd get from a meeting with some corporate team tasked with coming up with a response to the Yellow Vests? Different colour and different item of clothing? Come on, be creative at least. That's just lazy.

 

[Azovka]

No kidding. In fact, doesn't Red Scarves sound like exactly what you'd get from a meeting with some corporate team tasked with coming up with a response to the Yellow Vests? Different colour and different item of clothing? Come on, be creative at least. That's just lazy.

It's also been called "The Republican March for Freedom", "La Marche Républicaine pour les Libertés" in the French media.

To quote a popular French media outlet - Le Monde, "at the end of the protests, all participants dispersed quiet and calm, without forgetting to thank the policemen first."
I mean, I would thank the policemen too if I hadn't seen them fire into the crowd randomly with flashballs and been myself teargased for taking pictures :3

Now this is exactly the kind of face that comes to mind when thinking about "the silent majority of the French people", and not the very definition of the privileged fuckboi that makes up the establishment.

 

[Shaka Brah]

Antifa are shock troops for Woke Capital. They’re not a grassroots organization and at least in America, they get indirectly funded by banks, multinational corporations, etc. Check out the various antifa PACs sometime. I remember Charles Schwab and Fidelity contributing to them, among many others.

Here we go: https://capitalresearch.org/article...e-resistance-the-alliance-for-global-justice/

Wall Street funded the Bolsheviks. Really makes you think about (((who))) likes political instability in the First World.

 

[TerminalTryHard]

No kidding. In fact, doesn't Red Scarves sound like exactly what you'd get from a meeting with some corporate team tasked with coming up with a response to the Yellow Vests? Different colour and different item of clothing? Come on, be creative at least. That's just lazy.

It sounds like some YA novel faggotry too so who it could be organic. I wonder if they'll get a free pass like Antifa does in places like Berkley? I think that will tell how much backing they're getting from the French gov.

 

[Racist Trash]

So they are backed by the MSM and untouched by the very aggressive police whereas yellow jackets were immediately put down with violence.
The clearly is nothing wrong here!


Edit: Also the Red Scarves mission statement talking about how innocent people were besieged by Yellow Jackets with stories about how they support the yellows but must stop the violence, falls flat when the group very clearly supports Macron and the government who have been using extreme violence.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

It's also been called "The Republican March for Freedom", "La Marche Républicaine pour les Libertés" in the French media.

To quote a popular French media outlet - Le Monde, "at the end of the protests, all participants dispersed quiet and calm, without forgetting to thank the policemen first."
I mean, I would thank the policemen too if I hadn't seen them fire into the crowd randomly with flashballs and been myself teargased for taking pictures :3

Now this is exactly the kind of face that comes to mind when thinking about "the silent majority of the French people", and not the very definition of the privileged fuckboi that makes up the establishment. View attachment 650516

The first thing that comes to my mind when seeing that face is "Yer a wizard 'arry."

 

[Silence of the Troons]

10 000 (or 2000-5000, as I have seen some people claim) is a pathetic number... the big Gaulliste manifestation that occurred on May 30th 1968 had 400 000 participants only in Paris. https://www.lepoint.fr/histoire/gra...1968-y-etiez-vous-09-05-2018-2216913_1615.php

Manifestation Manu was a failure

 

[TowinKarz]

The Red Scarves mission statement talking about how innocent people were besieged by Yellow Jackets with stories about how they support the yellows but must stop the violence, falls flat when the group very clearly supports Macron and the government who have been using extreme violence.

Stop violently getting shot point-blank in the eye you ruffians!!!!

 

[CWCissey]

Stop violently getting shot point-blank in the eye you ruffians!!!!

STOP DEFENDING YOURSELVES YOU RACIST PEASANTS.