France suspends controversial fuel tax after weeks of unrest

Washington Post ^

[Sub-Driver]

France suspends controversial fuel tax after weeks of unrest

By James McAuley December 4 at 6:40 AM

PARIS — French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe announced Tuesday that the French government would temporarily suspend the controversial carbon tax plan that triggered weeks of often violent protests around the country.

To help curb climate change, the government had proposed a slew of new carbon taxes that were slated to take effect in January 2019 and were designed to wean consumers off diesel and other polluting fuels and to favor electric cars. But the price hikes those taxes represented triggered a wave of social unrest unseen in recent years that quickly became a full-blown crisis.

For the better part of three weeks, protesters — clad in high-visibilty yellow vests — took to the streets across the country. In Paris especially, the scenes were particularly violent, with protesters defacing monuments, torching cars and smashing shop windows. The government has weighed the possibility of imposing a “state of emergency” to quell the unrest

Tuesday’s announcement — a six-month suspension of the proposed taxes — represented a major reversal for a government that had initially stood its ground. President Emmanuel Macron, who won the French presidential election in a landslide in 2017, has struggled to maintain his popularity, with critics accusing him of being out of touch with the concerns of ordinary people.

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That’s WHY they call him “Maricon Macron”!