Posted on 12/03/2018 12:35:01 PM PST by SeekAndFind
PARIS — "Yellow Jacket" protesters blocking access to 11 fuel depots belonging to one of the world's biggest oil companies have left gas stations running dry in France.
At least 75 of the company's 2,200 gas stations were out of fuel, a spokesman for energy giant Total said Monday.
For more than two weeks, protesters angry over gas taxes and the high cost of living have been blocking roads across France, impeding access to fuel depots, shopping malls and some airports.
Riot police were overrun on Saturday as protesters brought chaos to Paris' fanciest neighborhoods, torching dozens of cars, looting boutiques and smashing up luxury private homes and cafes in the worst disturbances the capital has seen since 1968.
More than 100 people were injured in the French capital and 412 arrested over the weekend.
The "Yellow Jacket" revolt erupted on Nov. 17 and poses a formidable challenge to President Emmanuel Macron as he tries to counter a plunge in popularity over his economic reforms, which are seen as favoring the wealthy.
The "Yellow Jacket" activists are named after the neon vests French drivers are obliged to carry in their vehicles in the case of roadside emergencies.
The movement began online as an impromptu rebellion against higher fuel prices but has morphed into a broader outpouring of anger over the squeeze that living costs are putting on middle-class household budgets.
Their core demand is a freeze on further planned tax increases on gas and diesel — the next is due in January — and measures to help bolster spending power.
But many have also called for Macron to quit.
Public support for the "Yellow Jackets" remains high, with seven-in-10 people backing their protest, according to a Harris Interactive opinion poll conducted after Saturday's unrest.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
So we're kinda like the US, I think - half and half.
These French protesters are the working class "forgotten". I do have hope for them to succeed. What if Hillary had won and people said that about us?
Charles De Gaulle was a giant compared to the mommy-challenged Macron. If the 1968 riots brought down De Gaulle, then Macron soon could be toast.
- -
Mmm. French toast.
Some things never change.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey0wvGiAH9g
(Monty Python, of course!)
More seriously, have you ever asked them (especially the engineers) to analyze how France got where it is now?
Well, I guess that is a little unclear
My thought is thaat America suffers from yellow shirt creep. More and more American workers are forced to wear the dayglo green color vests or shirts or hats. The EU bureaucrats have imposed their will on us. The proof is MCdonalds at lunchtime
The thought has nothing to do with the protesters wearing the ubiquitous green called yellow
You know a lot about France’s political system. Going to do some research; that term `cohabitation’ rings a bell.
And the various republics: The Third Republic fell when the Nazis invaded; the Fourth Republic fell in 1958 and De Gaulle became President of the Fifth Republic.
He was IIRC forced to retire in 1968; a lot of us in the U.S. said good riddance, he was a royal PITA who took France out of NATO, f***ed the Israelis over after June 1967, and was a general all around pr*ck where U.S. & Britain were concerned.
Anyway, you wrote Macron will serve out his term. Is there any recourse to him doing as he pleases vis-a-vis the French people? Their leaders from way back like to say “l’etat, c’est moi!”
Ironic that the garment of protest is something required to be carried in every Frenchman’s car. At one time car headlights had to be yellow. Wonder if a first aid kit is also required, like in Germany?
The events in Paris are getting to be verrrrry interesting.
“The movement began online as an impromptu rebellion against higher fuel prices but has morphed into a broader outpouring of anger over the squeeze that living costs are putting on middle-class household budgets.”
But socialist countries are so happy, how could this be?
France has always been ruled by a professional elite. These people go into administrative schools to be trained to run the country.
They’re literally a caste. Its like the most exclusive club in the Western World.
“If it were white, SUV-driving, racist, transphobic, Trump-supporting Americans who were angry over gas prices, that would be one thing but that it’s the French who won’t accept this is very upsetting to the Left’s worldview. “
I’m glad, but surprised - that they get the irony.
Nope - According to my hubby (Fortress enthusiast/archeologist and author)Ouvrage Hochwald has been abandoned, since the French AF radar station closed down & moved out a few years ago.
May be a couple small casemates in use by the Army, maybe for training?
It’s true to this day that the social class one is born into in UK, Germany or France is the class one will die in.
Brain teaser: who set up what became the modern French administrative state? It wasn’t Napoleon, it was ol’ King Louis XIV. His goal was to break the power of the regional dukes, and he did it. Made them stand in his Versailles palace bedroom while he got into bed.
This practice was later adopted by Lyndon Johnson in a much cruder form.
Yeah, a lot of people keep them over the back of the driver’s seat, so they’re handy if you have to get out. That’s what I do in my French car.
Yeah, good luck with that. There are too many on here who won’t get off their fat as**** to even march on Washington, much less protest visibly.
Yeah...they should be forced to wear camouflage patterns and colors that would best blend in with their work surroundings.
Leftists come in two stripes by my reckoning-They’re either too stupid to understand cause and effect, or they do “get it”, but are so afraid of Free Markets and Liberty that it scares them.
Dennis Prager had a French blogger on today who said there are muslims looting while the protests are going on.
France had many colonies in Africa-they could be black or muslim or both.
Oh, ok. Thanks for correcting.
I will go see what their black population was maybe 10 years ago before the muzzie invasion.
Don't give up the working class French! Keep the faith with them. They are courageous and fighting the same climate crap globalism we despise.
They have had huge enough fuel increases from carbon taxes that they are fed up - these are truckdrivers, fishermen, construction workers from outlying provinces, with some additional elements from extreme groups joining in.
Maybe 70% of their income is being taken before they get paid. I'd burn cars too.
So we deserved 8 years of Obama and his marxism, corruption, lies?
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