Posted on 12/08/2018 8:06:57 PM PST by SeekAndFind
At least 700 people were arrested in Paris as 5,000 demonstrators faced off against 8,000 police in another violent demonstration by "yellow vest" protesters.
Riots broke out all over France despite the supposed cause of the violence being eliminated earlier in the week by the government of President Emmanuel Macron. The government had been claiming that a fuel tax increase was to blame for the protests, but the government rescinded the increase on Wednesday.
Donald Trump believes it was Macron's climate change policies:
But the protesters themselves were giving the real reason for the violence -- if anyone in Macron's government was listening.
"We are not here to destroy Paris, we are here to tell Macron we are f--king fed up," said one protester before the clashes with the police began, adding that the people are protesting ever-increasing taxes on the working class.
[...]
Many protesters slammed the French media for portraying the protests as led by violent agitators and for siding with Macron's government.
"We are not black bloc [black clad anarchists], we are ordinary people voicing our anger," said a protester who did not want to be identified.
Meanwhile, the contagion has spread to neighboring Belgium and the Netherlands.
Belgian police fired tear gas and water cannons at yellow-vested protesters calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Charles Michel after they tried to breach a riot barricade, as the movement that started in France made its mark Saturday in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Protesters in Brussels threw paving stones, road signs, fireworks, flares and other objects at police blocking their entry to an area where Michel's offices, other government buildings and the parliament are located.
Brussels police spokeswoman Ilse Van de Keere said that around 400 protesters were gathered in the area.
About 100 were detained, many for carrying dangerous objects like fireworks or clothing that could be used as protection in clashes with police.
The reasons for the protests are not entirely clear. Neither Belgium nor the Netherlands has proposed a hike in fuel tax — the catalyst for the massive and destructive demonstrations in France in recent weeks.
Instead, protesters appeared to hail at least in part from a populist movement that is angry at government policy in general and what it sees as the widening gulf between mainstream politicians and the voters who put them in power. Some in Belgium appeared intent only on confronting police.
In the Dutch city of Rotterdam, a few hundred protesters in the high-visibility vests that have become a symbol of the movement walked peacefully across the downtown Erasmus Bridge singing a song about the Netherlands and handing flowers to passers-by.
Sisters Beb and Ieneke Lambermont, aged 76 and 67 respectively, were among them.
"Our children are hard-working people but they have to pay taxes everywhere. You can't get housing anymore. It is not going well in Dutch society," Ieneke said. "The social welfare net we grew up with is gone," she said.
"The government is not there for the people. It is there to protect its own interests," she said.
Are you listening, EU leaders?
The nationalist movements in Europe are not the stirrings of proto-fascists, or due to hatred for refugees. Certainly there is some of that sentiment present and it is worrisome. But the ordinary people who are paying for the grandiose schemes of the social planners in Brussels have had enough. And they are finally rising up to demand an end to it.
This is a continent-wide class protest, something Europe has been experiencing for more than 100 years. In that, there is nothing new.
What is new is that the grand social democratic experiment that began after the end of World War II may finally be coming to an end. Governments can only spend other people's money for so long before there is a backlash. I would say that the backlash is well underway.
Yeah, the “Obama Fedeyeen” … linked to a group Obama was involved with called “Public Allies” to train community agitators to pressure through intimidation “change” ...wanted to fund it like it was an army... give the youth health care and stipends....
Yeah, the “Obama Fedeyeen” … linked to a group Obama was involved with called “Public Allies” to train community agitators to pressure through ntimidation “change” ...wanted to fund it like it was an army... give the youth health care and stipends....
Public Allies is part of AmeriCorps. The idea was modeled after one of Bill Ayer’s youth ideas.
In Obama’s own words, he and Michelle wanted them to be “Just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded as the military”
“Hep me out here, but didn’t barack hussein bin soetoro propose ther USA should also have a national police force??”
Yes, that force is called antifa. Most people think they are just anarchists, but if you watch their behaviors and tactics closely, there is obviously some level of organization and training.
Nobody dares to mention that the native peoples are also protesting the globalists slow genocide of the native peoples by subsidizing the islamic replacement of the natives by over taxing the natives.
“The social welfare net we grew up with is gone,” she said.
Did she want something for nothing? Did she realize that it cost money that someone had to pay? Did it ever occur to her that socialism is unsustainable? She may be more part of the problem than she realizes.
Good.
Which is why some of the Gilets Jaunes were using the dreaded F-word: Frexit.
Oops!... Ok, so it's still there right now, but there will be a day when it isn't there... LOL
Socialist policies drove these people to the breaking point.
I think the EU is dead, just twitching for a while.
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maybe the CDC can name a communicable disease after him as part of his "legacy": 0b0la
funny
“The paris agreement” in trouble?
Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah...........................I think rather that it’s this whole “European Union” thingy that is the problem for everybody.
Please post them
Awesome. Hope it spreads to the UK and Germany.
The EU needs to be trashed.
“One the demands I noted....earlier retirement ages”
Then they haven’t learned their lesson about socialism. If their demands are a mixture just wanting their country back and wanting more free handouts, I don’t think this movement will go far.
Oh, but we should be more like the “enlightened” Europenises, right, John Kerry?
Seems like socialism is so ingrained that they don’t even know about they’re protesting. They don’t seem to have the big picture of economics in mind.
Why do you think they want to make body armour illegal here in the US?
I hadn’t heard that one.
Although I haven’t kept up with all the idiocy from the California legislature since we escaped there. I would imagine it originated there.
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