The „yellow vests“ have been frightening the French government for months with their mass protests. President Emmanuel Macron had to make – quite expensive – concessions. Now that the wave of protests has subsided and the summer is here, he ventures out of cover again. It should be shortened again. Poker is daring.
Macron and the government under Prime Minister Edouard Philippe had temporarily slowed their pace of reform because of the protests, which repeatedly escalated into violence. Now, a law amendment is planned for July, which provides for reductions in benefits for the unemployed – both in terms of the amount and the claim itself, they say.
At the same time, the government in Paris wanted to ask companies that mainly employ temporary workers to pay some kind of punitive tax. These make them responsible for the emergence of a new „precarious“ class, it was last in an analysis in the „Wall Street Journal“.
Macron seems to take the chance now, after the protests of the „Gilets Jaunes“ – as they are called in the local language – with support for them have lessened.
A „window“ for reforms
At first, they „paralyzed“ the government and forced it to its knees, and seven months later the „steam“ was gone. This has opened for Macron a „window“ to continue its reform course, wrote the business newspaper. Philippe has said that the status quo encourages companies to hire workers for a short time rather than longer term, and there are too few „incentives“ for people without jobs to look for them.
In fact, the number of „yellow vests“ on the French roads has fallen rapidly lately. According to the Interior Ministry in Paris, the number of participants last week was around 7,000 – and thus at a new low. A week earlier, it had been just over 10,000. In Paris, just under 1,000 people were on the street, was also protested in Bordeaux and Toulouse. The mass demonstrations of the „yellow vests“ started seven months ago. On November 17, nearly 290,000 people took to the streets.
Mass protests, riots, arrests
There were repeated violent clashes with security forces. Time and again – through scattered groups among the demonstrators – cars were lit, shop windows smashed, barricades erected and traffic blocked, there were numerous casualties and even deaths. Hundreds of people were arrested several times and thousands of security forces were deployed. Initially, the protests were directed against high fuel and life-saving costs, later against Macron’s reformist policy.
The French president finally had to bow to the pressure of the street and finally, at the beginning of the year, faced a „civil dialogue“, a „grand debat national“. France is not like other countries, Macron wrote in a letter. The French are more sensitive to social injustice.
The government promised a reduction in income tax, the state audit office should close tax loopholes. Plans to reform unemployment benefits and the pension system were only temporarily put on ice to calm the minds. Now they are up to date again.
The „seed“ of the protests
The changes should be made by decree, the Wall Street Journal wrote, and if it proves to be dangerous, this move will allow the government to bypass the House. Macron does not use this tactic for the first time. He had done the same, for instance, when it was easier for companies to dismiss employees. That was the seed of tensions „that exploded in the ‚yellow vests‘ protests.
