One dead, 24 wounded and 17 arrested in a day of protest against the price of diesel, which mobilized 125,000 people in the whole of France,
The Government will not relinquish: although afraid of the challenge of the France peripheral and angry you can’t lose the disputed vote green in the european
Perhaps the greatest expression of rejection he has had to face Emmanuel Macron. A spontaneous movement, outside parties and trade unions got this Saturday to mobilize 125,000 people in 2000 concentrations, according to data from the ministry of Interior. They were protesting against the price increase of the fuels and are identified with the yellow vest.
Although the day was largely peaceful, one person was killed by being run over by a motorist. In total there were half a hundred wounded, three seriously. The forces of law and order arrested two dozen people. The big unknown is whether the movement will have continuity.
The most serious incident occurred in the Pont de Beauvoir (Savoy), where a conductive, frightened by the demonstrators who were beating his car, slammed against the concentrates. A woman of about 50 years died. The assailant was detained by the police, in a state of shock.
The police had orders to keep open the access to strategic points such as ports, airports, tunnels etc In the rest, to intervene only in case of disorders. Despite it all, there were 24 detainees.
in the first hour of the afternoon, the police intervened in Paris in both the surroundings of the Elysée, as in the avenue of the Champs-Elysées, where hundreds of yellow vests cut to the traffic.
The circulation problems were common in all of France.
The reason
The protest sparked the latest rise in the price of fuels, particularly diesel. Many French people are convinced that they will pay the more expensive price but this is not so. The liter of diesel costs in France 1,48 E, more than the EU average (1,43). But there are five european countries where diesel is more expensive. Among them, the United Kingdom and Belgium.
What is certain that the State is left with the 57% of what you paid for each litre of diesel and 61% of that of gasoline. In fact, the reason of the climb is the decision of equalizing the taxation of the two types of fuel. For ecological reasons. The French government hopes to achieve the goal by 2022. But it is a decision of 2015.
France’s diesel
The motion in addition to spontaneous is peripheral. In all the senses. The geographic, rural France and from small cities compared to Paris. The social, the France of down because the oil price affects, above all, to small entrepreneurs, wage earners and farmers who need the car for work. And the economic, the France that has a job but earns little.
72% of those who circulate in car diesel living in isolated regions such as the massif central, the Loire, or in depressed areas of the north as the Somme. The France of diesel fuel overlaps with the France of lower income, demonstrated by a study of l Argus.
on the contrary, in the zones more dynamic and in all the big cities are wheel much less in diesel. In Paris, a third of households have no car.
emblem
it is Not known how the movement, which lacks of leader, structure or location, he decided to identify himself with the yellow vest. Maybe it was because everyone has it at hand, since it is mandatory.
But it was a success. The France invisible opens up all the teledarios. What more appropriate way of making themselves visible in case of an emergency to identify those that they feel forgotten by the Government, Paris, the establishment and the media.
The protest is popular. As with almost all protest movements, 74% of the French found to be justified in front of the 25% that thinks not. (Polling Ordoxa for le Figaro). France pissed is always a reason to protest. And is burned with Macron.
And what about the politicians?
Neither parties nor unions are behind. That much is obvious. That’s not to say that it does not support it. The leader that has most meaning has been… Marine Le Pen.
That has allowed Macron to report the “recovery” of the protest by the extreme right. And that express support has prevented the extreme left, communists, socialists, and the right to join officially to the mobilization. The majority of political leaders have stated that it understood the reasons, that didn’t seem wrong that its affiliates were the concentrations but they did not take part.
Government on the defensive
The executive has been surprised and on the defensive. Afraid of nothing more of a French government that the sum of the anger, a general movement of protest built on the union of social protests.
that is why he has been careful in their way of referring to the mobilized. He made it clear that you will not withdraw the rise and that he would not tolerate the occupation of strategic points. Has made a great effort of communication: Macron, has given five interviews in 10 days, a radical change in who arrived at the Elysee theorizing that the word of the president had to be exceptional.
The prime minister Édouard Philippe has been responsible for the announcement of palliative measures for the climb. So he has announced the increase of the premium to the conversion. Now give 4000 And to those who change their old vehicle for a new diesel and 5000 if the model is electric and hybrid. Also uploaded the check you receive those who must move for employment reasons but have low incomes.
The endangered green
Macron neither can give in for reasons of political calculation. His supporters are the least supportive of the protest (33%), but also afraid of losing the vote green at the european.
Macron became president on the basis of the France urban, globalising and european. Your message only excluded the two extremes, which have in common their antieuropeísmo. Fears that a nomination green will serve as a magnet for non-conformists who hate to vote for Le Pen or Mélenchon.
Macron does not want to crystallize on your left a critical force that can capitalize on the discontent. You should get the division and decline of the socialists, the traditional formation of hegemonic of this side of the political spectrum. That’s why fears that Segolene Royal to lead a candidacy that is red green.
in Addition to the push poll green in the last regional elections, the German, it should be recalled that in the 2009 european, were seconds in France with 16.3% of the votes. Of course back then, their candidate was a certain Daniel Cohn-Bendit, today faithful to Macron. At best, you have to take the hand of a veteran of ‘ 68.
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