The yellow jacket protests that began a month ago in France have continued and spread into other French cities. From NBC:
An estimated 10,000 yellow jacket protesters flooded Paris’ otherwise largely deserted streets on Saturday, while 125,000 demonstrated around the country, according to Interior Minister Christophe Castaner. Police arrested over 1,000 people. In addition, 135 were injured, including 17 police officers, he added.
Police and protesters also clashed in other French cities, notably Marseille, Toulouse and Bordeaux. The effects of the protest were felt beyond France’s borders as well, with protesters donning yellow jackets as a symbol of resistance in Belgium Saturday and Iraq earlier this week.
As noted above they have spread into Belgium, the Netherlands, and now Iraq as well. They started as protests against fuel tax increases but I honestly don’t know what they’re protesting in each country. Perhaps a generalized dissatisfaction.
The greatest commonality among the protests seems to be that they’re using the Internet (Facebook in particular) to organize. Anti-globalization? Anti-EU bureaucracy? Anti-elite? Just unhappy?
Sounds like a bit of all of the above. I thought this was a pretty good report:
https://www.france24.com/en/reporters/20181207-france-yellow-vest-protests-riot-anger-taxes-protesters
A big component is Macrons reductions of taxes for the wealthy while increasing taxes that hit the middle and lower income people. France24 reportedthis morning that rail workers and farmers are planning to join the yellow jackets this week, so this doesn’t appear to be winding down.
What the French government needs to worry about is when the police side with the demonstrators.
It is not a “whenâ€, but an “ifâ€. It is not ineveritable or even likely that Macron will lose the police or the armed forces.
The color revolution are arriving into Western Europe…
Joyner and Mataconis have definitively established it’s all being orchestrated by Russia. Just ask them.
Ben,
One of the major reasons I dropped OTB from my regular reading list, though I do head over occasionally to see if there’s anything interesting or new. For the most part, it’s consistently establishment and very inside the beltway and therefore not much different from any other establishment source.
That’s definitely the case for Joyner, who just isn’t an independent thinker. Doug is an extra helping of gobsmack, a self-identified libertarian who insists on unquestioned trust in and obedience to the state.