Macron's Concessions Won't Satisfy Paris Protesters for Long
*By Chloe Aiello*
The famously stoic president of France may have conceded on fuel taxes to protesters, but his decision was most likely a product of circumstance, not an act of altruism. In this case, said Erin Zaleski of the Daily Beast, Emmanuel Macron had no one with whom he could negotiate. But small concessions, like a fuel tax moratorium, won't be enough to satisfy protesters who are wreaking havoc in the streets of Paris.
"People aren't impressed by this concession by the government. They are very suspicious. They are saying, 'Oh well, six months from now, they are just going to reimpose the taxes again so nothing will change,'" Zaleski said.
The protesters "are actually calling for another demonstration this Saturday," she added.
Macron's government on Tuesday announced France will suspend for six months a tax on gas and diesel, originally intended to go into effect in January. The decision follows widespread disruption in the nation's capital, [according the the New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/04/world/europe/france-fuel-tax-yellow-vests.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage), from demonstrations that turned violent and destructive. At least three are dead and about 100 injured in clashes between police and yellow vest-clad protesters, called "Yellow Jackets" or "Gilets Jaunes," named for the for the roadside safety vests they wear.
The Gilets Jaunes movement, which is decentralized and organized online, seem to consist largely of working-class individuals who live and work on the outskirts of cities or in rural France and require their cars to commute. Alice Preat and Joseph Cavetz, students at the American University in Paris who witnessed the demonstrations, said the mix of protesters was remarkable.
"People from all over the country are coming to Paris to protest ー its not just Parisians, which is kind of unheard of in terms of Paris protests," Preat said.
"There's definitely a sense of unity in their cause of anti-Macron," Cavetz said. "In America you typically have some element of polarization where the far left and far right wouldn't attend the same protest, but here its a ... very spread out kind of opposition."
Macron's latest fuel tax would add a few cents per gallon to the price of gas to improve France's environmental rap sheet. It proved a breaking point for protesters, who aren't as concerned with environmental reform as they are disgruntled about stagnating wages and rising living costs.
"Generally French people of the lower social classes take issue with it because they feel that the government is hiding behind environmental policies in order to just tax the poor more," Preat said.
Like Zaleski, Preat was not convinced the protests in Paris would cease after Macron's gas tax moratorium. She added the events of the past few weeks would likely undermine his authority.
"His opposition is going to be able to use the violence over these past couple weekends as justification for any counter moves they want to take against him," she said.
Macron has not historically allowed the will of the people to influence his policy-making ー most recently when he faced opposition over the summer to his railway reforms. But this time is different, because Macron is alone at the negotiating table, Zaleski said.
"What's different in this instance is these aren't unions, these aren't companies to negotiate with. These are very loosely organized protests. It has actually sort of evolved into a movement ... there's no one to negotiate with, there's no company, these are the people in the streets," Zaleski said.
And the protests are especially poignant because they're happening in pristine, photogenic, and touristy central Paris.
"I think he sort of felt caught between a rock and a hard place, because the protesters don't seem to be backing down. And again the fact that this violence erupted in central Paris ... you see fires at the Champs Elysees, you see vandalism at the Place Vendome," Zaleksi said.
The school shooting in Texas that left 19 children and 2 teachers dead has reignited the debate over gun control.
The tragedy in Uvalde is the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade and marks the latest in a string of mass shootings in the country. Jared Moskowitz, Broward County Commissioner and candidate for Congress in FL-23, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss why gun control measures are stalled in the Senate, and where legislation can move forward from here.
Police and detectives are still investigating the tragic school shooting in Uvalde, Texas that killed 19 children and two adults. Cheddar News was joined by Kirk Burkhalter, professor at New York Law School and former NYPD detective to gain some insight on what investigators are looking for and what comes next.
Texas authorities say the gunman who massacred 21 people at an elementary school was in the building for over an hour before he was killed by law enforcement officers.
Join Cheddar News as we break down the top headlines for Thursday, May 26 including updates on the Texas school shooting, President Joe Biden's executive order on police reform, and a recount in the Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary.
Representative Morgan Griffith of Virginia rebuked words from the FDA commissioner that could have been construed as blaming parents for stockpiling baby formula exacerbating the shortage.
Cheddar News reporter Megan Pratz brings the latest from the scene of yesterday's horrific school shooting at a Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Now the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history with 19 children and two adults killed, Pratz goes into comments by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, details about the deceased shooter, and reactions from members of the community.
The Robb Elementary School mass shooting killing 19 children and two adults in Uvalde, Texas pm Tuesday was the deadliest school shooting since the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, and came just 10 days after the grocery store shooting in Buffalo, New York. Nelson Vergara, the founder and CEO of 360 Protective Solutions, joined Cheddar’s Opening Bell to discuss. "Right now what law enforcement is concentrating on is trying to trace his steps as to what motivated the gunman to act the way he did. What it boils down to just trying to figure out what led to his motivation to do such a horrific act.”
An recently conducted AP-NORC poll found that majorities of the Black and Hispanic populations in the U.S. still find themselves either somewhat worried or extremely worried over the pandemic, while more than half of white Americans responded with either being not too worried or not worried at all. Dr. Chris Pernell, the chief strategic integration and health equity officer at University Hospital, joined Cheddar News to talk about how perceptions of COVID-19 differ between groups of Americans. "We’re still seeing people get infected, and because of the toll of the disproportionate impact, we have concerns among the Black and brown community about whether or not they have an increased risk of exposure because of where they work, because of the use of public transportation, because they live in homes that they may not be able to safely quarantine and or isolate in, and because they have at baseline chronic health conditions that may make coronavirus more severe in those persons," she said.
Judith Enck, a former regional administrator for the EPA and the president of Beyond Plastics, joined Cheddar News to talk about the role of plastics in the climate crisis and California's investigation of ExxonMobil and other oil companies for misleading the public on the ability to recycle plastics. "The reason why petrochemical companies like Exxon have gotten away with selling more and more plastic is that they've lied to the public and told us don't worry about all those negative upstream impacts and downstream impacts of plastics. Just be sure to recycle it. Well, guess what? Plastics largely are not recycled," Enck said.
