Really? Can you post reference to that?
Reports I read showed that they wanted gas taxes reduced, and wealth taxes reinstated. It’s the middle class against the rich.
From this article:
“Macron’s decision early in his presidency to slash taxes on France’s wealthiest is particularly unpopular with the protesters. Arguing that such a move was necessary in order to boost investment and create jobs, the former investment banker has so far ruled out re-imposing the “fortune tax”.
But the policy, along with hikes on pensioners’ taxes, cuts in housing allowances and a string of comments deemed insensitive to ordinary workers, has led critics to label him a “president of the rich”.
“But the policy, along with hikes on pensioners’ taxes, cuts in housing allowances and a string of comments deemed insensitive to ordinary workers, has led critics to label him a “president of the rich”.”
From: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-02/france-s-dangerous-yellow-vest-protesters
““The ‘gilets jaunes’ movement will probably peter out, but not the anger, which is likely to go on and take new forms maybe more dangerous for Macron,” said Jim Shields, a professor of French politics at Warwick University in the U.K. “It’s hard to see how he can complete controversial reforms like pensions and unemployment insurance without yet more blood on the pavement.”
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““We pay more and more for fewer and fewer services. Where is the money going?” he asked. He wants the movement to focus on finding leaders at the local level and slimming its demands: “We need to focus on the basics: taxes, bringing back the wealth tax, politicians’ salaries, pensions, minimum wage.””
From a link in the above article:
“They’ve criticized the Yellow Vests for wanting both lower taxes and more services and for the violence that’s flared at some of their protests.”
From:
htps://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/05/world/europe/yellow-vests-france.html
“Mr. Macron, it turns out, is also a change agent out of step with the times, just as France’s long delay in biting off structural economic overhauls has left it out of sync with its Western cohort. He is now trying to push through reforms to make France more business-friendly and competitive, as Britain did in the 1980s and Germany in the 1990s. Meanwhile, the global backlash is already cresting, fueled by the income disparities those changes ushered in.”
““Right now, give us more purchasing power,” Jean-François Barnaba, a Yellow Vest spokesman in the Indre administrative department, told BFM TV on Tuesday.
“The gas tax was only the beginning,” said Tony Roussel, a spokesman for the movement in Marseille. “Now there are all the other taxes. There are salaries. There is the minimum wage.”
“
From me: High taxes and ridiculous employment issues (the inability to fire anyone, for example) have driven the French to take their businesses elsewhere. Macron tried to reduce taxes on the rich and change some of the socialist policies that keep business from locating in France. This has angered the yellow vests. The yellow vests want higher wages, which should not be a factor controlled by the government. Plus the YV’s want more services and controlled (subsidized) costs. As the government official said above, “they want more services and less taxes.” It all sounds pretty socialist to me.
Regards,