Reuters reports French ‘Yellow Vests’ Defy Macron with Fresh Protests.
Thousands of “yellow vest” demonstrators marched through Paris and other cities on Saturday on the 11th weekend of action against the government, suggesting President Emmanuel Macron has yet to defuse public opposition to some of his policies.
The protests were mostly peaceful but there were sporadic clashes at the end of the Paris march at Bastille square, and incidents elsewhere around France, with a combined 22,000 people attending as of the early afternoon, the interior ministry said.
As in previous weeks, protesters carried French flags and held signs attacking “King Macron” as out of touch or calling for referendums tabled by ordinary citizens. Small groups of protesters formed makeshift barriers, lit fires and threw projectiles at police, who responded with tear gas and water canon, television footage showed.
Week 11
Diminishing Crowds
The previous two weeks had about 60,000 protesters. The initial protests were well over 100,000. Today was 22,000 total, combined across multiple cities.
I did a weather check. Temperature at 10:00 PM on Saturday, in Paris, was 47 degrees Fahrenheit.
The video shows light rain which may have been a factor.
Splintering
Some of the yellow vest movement wants to enter a dialog with President Emmanuel Macron. Others want to start a political party and enter the European Parliament elections.
The elections are Thu, May 23, 2019 – Sun, May 26, 2019, varying by country. In France, the election is May 26.
The radicals don’t want dialog nor do they want to enter elections. Some of the movement is upset at the radicals.
Political Values
They are all upset about something typically taxes on them. Beyond that, there is little agreement on solutions. Also, there is no clear leader that the movement can agree on.
Good luck forming a party with that, unless they stick to a single issue, say taxes.
Marine Le Pen the Winner
Even if the movement dies out, the issues have not gone away.
People are upset about many things and they blame Macron.
The clear winner was Marine Le Pen who embraced the movement without even partaking in it.
I expect Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (previously National Front) party to do very well in the upcoming elections.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
The suffering, injustice and disappointment that Macron has caused is too deep, I think the yellow vests manifestacion will not go down easily, the one who would have to leave if he has a little dignity would be the Macron himself.
They should form a party and take part in the European parliament elections.
Then they would get their issues talked about more since Macron strategy has been to just placate them and hope they go away.
Macron will be a 1-term president due to him being an out of touch elitist as exposed by yellow vest movement protests so yellow vest movement has already had an effect in French politics.
Also the weather definitely has had an effect but there will be bigger numbers in the spring just around European Parliament elections and Macron was cocky and planned to start a new centrist-elitist-EU-loving political group in EU parliament earlier after the elections but those hopes have been forgotten and Macron’s ability to get others EU leaders to follow agenda set by him has been greatly diminished.
Now Macron is just hugging Merkel ever tighter in their new co-operation agreement but both are already yesterday’s news.
The government has unlimited resources, including time. Just wait out the protests, eventually they’ll go away.