The wrath of the periphery

The transfer of the Elysée freeze the rising prices of gas and electricity, and the rates of the fuels has not turned off completely the revolt of the yellow vests. It is possible that France may eternal, the same that makes a five years struck the ecotax on trucks, again, after the banner and even the barricade, in view of the violence of the last three weeks. In the background lies a social conflict of the scale that has been exploited by the efforts of reform and liberalization of Macron, and a taxation system that load the inks on the middle classes and workers.

The rise of the diesel fuel is the tip of the iceberg of the imbalance between the periphery and the center. 60% of the private vehicles that circulate in France, they do so with diesel, but in some regions, such as the Massif Central and Brittany, this percentage grows to 72%. When Macron came to the Presidency of the Republic, in may 2017, the litre of unleaded petrol cost to 1.37 euros and the diesel, 1,21. During the last few weeks it has shot down to 1.56 and approximately 1.52, respectively. And diesel, which is the fuel most widely sold in France, rose 18.3% through October, in contrast with 12.7 percent on average in the EU. Almost 19 million French citizens -more than one-quarter of the population – reside in geographic areas in which there are no transports. In contrast, in the center of Paris, only a third of the households have own car: accustomed to travel by plane or high speed train. Before the land determined income. Now, technology and mobility.

The battle against the diesel has become a preferential target for the necessary ecological transition and fight against climate change. The problem in France, unlike Spain, is that there collides not only with the defense numantina of the welfare State but with the agonizing decline of their peri-urban regions, which cover the rural areas and urban corridors away from the capital. The key factor to understand the degree of adhesion and the transversality of the wrath of the yellow vests lies in the demographic structure of the country. While in Spain more than 60% of the municipalities have less than 1000 inhabitants and only account for 3.2% of the population, in the neighboring country close to the half of its inhabitants live in towns of less than 10,000 inhabitants. It is not France empty is undignified because in this country carry applying policies against depopulation from De Gaulle. It is the France that blows up by grudges larvados as a result of your rampant job insecurity.

The cry is directed not so much against a change of the energy system but rather against an economic model that is eroding the territorial cohesion, that is to say, equality among all citizens with the same rights. Hence not be able to basis of boutade the subterfuge that the French prime minister justified the weakness of his Government: “any rate deserves to put in danger the unity of the nation”. Because this is exactly what is at stake. The gap between the city and the field continues to agigantándose. The difference between France and Spain is that there do not only operate the embers of a longstanding revolutionary consciousness, but the strength of a territory alive and populated. Although hardly your neighbors come to the end of the month.

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