A demonstrator wearing a yellow jacket waves a French flag at the Arc de Triomphe during a demonstration Saturday, Dec.1, 2018 in Paris. Protesters angry about rising taxes clashed with French police for a third straight weekend and over 100 were arrested after pockets of demonstrators built barricades in the middle of streets in central Paris, lit fires and threw rocks at officers Saturday. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)ASSOCIATED PRESS
French protesters wearing yellow hi-vis vests have succeeded in one of their aims: the French government has said it will suspend a number of proposed “green” fuel taxes. The taxes were due to be imposed in order to reduce reliance on motoring but after three weeks of increasingly violent protests, the French prime minister is today set to remove the taxes, at least for now. Édouard Philippe will meet cabinet ministers to discuss the response to a weekend of rioting in Paris by members of the gilets jaunes (“yellow vests”) movement.
The green gas tax was due to increase next month but a grassroots movement sprang up to protest what was seen by many as an attempt to restrict driving. As well as demonstrating against the save-the-planet fuel taxes the protestors who donned gilets jaunes also expressed anger at the cost of living in general, and many have also called for the fall of the government and the resignation of President Emmanuel Macron.
President Macron had previously prided himself on not pandering to street protests, but he has been forced to back down after the worst violence to hit central Paris since the student riots of 1968.
Macron held an emergency meeting at the Elysée Palace last night to deal with the political and social crisis.
A meeting of MPs from the ruling La République En Marche party will today suspend the fuel taxes, reports French media.
Stanislas Guerini, the leader of the En Marche parliamentary group, said of the suspension of fuel taxes: “There has to be a pause so the debate can happen.”
Demonstrators wearing a yellow jacket walks on the Champs-Elysees avenue during a protest against tax Saturday, Nov. 24, 2018 in Paris. French police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse violent demonstrators in Paris, as thousands gathered in the capital and beyond and staged road blockades to vent anger against rising fuel taxes. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)ASSOCIATED PRESS
The protest movement has no leaders and a diffuse set of demands, and the French government is hoping that delaying or watering down some of the planned fuel taxes will be enough to quell the national protests.
At the weekend, riot police fought with protesters who painted graffiti on the Arc de Triomphe, pulled down iron railings at the Tuileries Gardens, and looted luxury stores.
Macron now knows how tough it is to make motorists pay more money in order to reduce climate-change emissions. U.K. politicians know this, too. There were fuel protests in 2000, 2007 and 2011, eventually leading to the U.K. government caving in to demands. Since 2010-11, fuel duty has been frozen in the U.K., costing the Treasury about £9-billion a year in lost revenues.
In September 2000, fuel protests in the U.K. lasted for seven days, with oil refineries blockaded leading to fuel shortages which saw schools closed, supermarket shelves emptied and the NHS in meltdown.
At the time, Prime Minister Tony Blair initially tried to tough it out. He said: “Were we to yield to that pressure it would run counter to every democratic principle this country believes in, and what is more, if the government was to decide its policy on taxes in response to such behavior, the credibility of economic policy vital to any country would be severely damaged and I will simply not allow that to happen.”
With petrol pumps running dry he soon gave in to the demands of the protestors, an example now being followed by President Macron in France. The planet? That can continue to burn – motorists gotta get their fuel fix, it seems.
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