On Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron returned to Paris from the Group of 20 summit meeting in Argentina
and went to the Arc de Triomphe to assess the damage after rioters defaced the
landmark.
A
government spokesman, Benjamin Griveaux, said France will consider imposing a
state of emergency to prevent a recurrence of what is being described as some
of the worst civil unrest in more than a decade by protesters.
It did not
help that Mr. Macron was 7,000 miles away in Buenos Aires for the Group of 20
economic summit meeting during the violence.
‘‘What happened today in Paris has nothing to
do with the peaceful expression of legitimate anger,” Mr. Macron said on
Saturday in Buenos Aires. “Nothing justifies attacking the security forces,
vandalizing businesses, either private or public ones, or that passers-by or
journalists are threatened, or the Arc de Triomphe defaced.”
The problem
the government faces is that different factions of the Yellow Vests have
different demands. While they all want a better standard of living, some are
furious at Mr. Macron for what they see as unjust tax policies that help the
rich but do nothing for the poor, and they want him out of office. Others are
more focused on raising the minimum wage and reducing the amount taken out of
employee paychecks to cover social security and related services.
Gérard
Noiriel, a historian at the School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences,
said “Macron thinks that this movement, which effectively rallied fewer than
300,000 participants at its first protest and fewer than 80,000 today is going
to weaken more and more and that the violence is going to discredit the Yellow
Vests in public opinion.”
The
problem, said Bernard Sananès, president of Elabe, a French polling
organization, is that “there are two Frances. One is a France that feels left
behind and moving down the socioeconomic ladder”.
A study
released this past week by the Jean-Jaurès Institute, a public policy think
tank, said: “In the past, these people could have given themselves some outings
and entertainment; today those little ‘extras’ are out of reach.”
Multiple
surveys of public opinion released in the past week suggest that 70 percent to
80 percent of French people sympathize with the Yellow Vests’ slogan that
President Emmanuel Macron “talks about the end of the world while we are
talking about the end of the month.”
The slogan
refers to Mr. Macron’s focus on reducing climate change by promoting fuel
efficiency and raising gas taxes in contrast to French working people who
struggle to make it to the end of their month on their earnings.
The median
disposable income for a person in a French household was 1,700 euros a month,
about $1,923, in 2016, the most recent year for which statistics are available,
according to Insee, the French government’s statistics agency.
Disposable
income reflects the amount left for workers to spend on their daily needs —
housing, food, schooling, clothes — after paying income taxes and payroll taxes
and making adjustments for any government subsidies for which they might be
eligible.
Often the
only way to reduce costs has been to move to the exurbs of major cities, where
real estate prices are much lower, but where workers generally must rely on a
car to get to work. Cars need gas and so any gas tax increase hits them. Taxes
have also risen on tobacco and other goods.
For rural
workers and those who live in distant small villages in the heart of France, a
car is even more clearly a necessity.
Centrist
politicians, even some who support Mr. Macron, are beginning to push for a more
engaged response from the government.
“You can’t govern against the people,” said
François Bayrou, the leader of the Moderate Democrats, who are partners with
Mr. Macron’s La Republique En Marche party in an interview on Europe 1. “The government can’t keep adding taxes on top of
taxes.”
From The New York Times (edited)
Photo Credit
Yoan Valat/EPA, via Shutterstock
Stephane Mahe/Reuters
