Protesters take part in an anti-government
demonstration called by the Yellow Vest
movement near the Hotel des Invalides in Paris
on January 19, 2019. ‘Yellow vest’ protesters
take to the streets on January 19 for 10th
consecutive Saturday.Valery HACHE / AFP
France’s “yellow vests†took to the streets on
Saturday for a 10th straight weekend of anti-
government protests, defying attempts by
President Emmanuel Macron to channel their
anger into a series of town hall debates.
A police source said the authorities expected the
protests to be “at least as big as last weekâ€
when over 80,000 people demonstrated over
inequality, the privileges enjoyed by senior public
servants and the governing style of a president
accused of arrogance.
Last week’s turnout confirmed that, after a lull at
the end of the year, the protesters behind the
biggest crisis in Macron’s presidency remain fully
mobilised.The centrist leader is hoping that the
launch this week of a “grand national debate†on
policy will mark a turning point.
One of the yellow vests’ top demands is that
ordinary citizens be given a greater say in policy-
making.
Macron this week kickstarted two months of
public consultations on issues ranging from
taxation to public services, spending over 12
hours in total debating with mayors at two
separate gatherings in the north and south-west
of the country.
The debates mark a return to form for the 41-
year-old president who won election at the head
of a grassroots movement that went door-to-door
asking the French what kind of changes were
needed.A prodigious debater he appeared this
week to relish the return to campaign-style
politics.
But many yellow vests have announced plans to
boycott the discussions scheduled in dozens of
towns and villages, seeing them as an attempt to
drain support from a movement that erupted in
mid-November over fuel taxes and quickly
broadened into a campaign of weekly protests
that have regularly ended in clashes with police
and destruction of property.
The growing number of demonstrators to suffer
serious injuries at the hands of the police has
compounded their anger towards the state.
The “Disarm†collective, a local group that
campaigns against police violence, has counted
98 cases of serious injuries, including 15 cases of
people losing an eye, mostly after being hit by
rubber bullets.
On Saturday, protesters plan to march from
Invalides war museum in Paris through the left
bank of the Seine.
Some 80,000 security force members are on duty
again nationwide, 5,000 of them in Paris.
Warning against debate ‘bluff’
Macron is pinning his hopes on the debate to
quash the image of a leader out-of-touch with
the concerns of people in rural France.
Polls show mixed feelings among the French, with
around 40 percent saying they would like to take
part but around two-thirds saying they do not
believe the consultations will end the protests.
“I’m warning you, Mr President. This debate must
not become a big bluff,†the mayor of the south-
central village of Saint-Cirgues, Christian Venries,
warned Macron at a public meeting Friday in his
region.
To fend off accusations that his policies favour
rich urbanites the most, former investment banker
Macron has already scrapped a controversial fuel
tax hike that would have squeezed car-dependent
rural-dwellers.
He has also unveiled a 10-billion-euro ($11.5-
billion) package of wage increases and tax relief
for low earners and retirees that threw off
France’s deficit targets.
The measures fell short of the mark for the
protesters, who are demanding a radical policy
shift in favour of low earners, buoyed by polls
that show widespread sympathy for their cause.
Source:
guardian.ng/news/world/macrons-debate-
put-to-test-as-yellow-vests-stage-tenth-protest/
