November 18, 2018 / 6:26 AM / a day ago
PARIS (Reuters) – Emmanuel Macron’s popularity took a further hit in recent weeks, according to a poll on Sunday, as fuel tax protests rumbled on across France in the latest sign of discontent with the president’s economic reforms.
Only 25 percent of those questioned in an Ifop poll between Nov. 9 and 17 said they were satisfied with Macron, down from 29 percent in October, according to the survey of almost 2,000 people published in the Journal du Dimanche (JDD).
Macron, who came to power 18 months ago vowing to reshape the economy and overhaul institutions, has brushed off slumping ratings to push through a series of reforms, including a loosening of laws governing hiring and firing.
His government introduced fuel tax hikes to encourage drivers to embrace less-polluting cars, touching a nerve with voters in rural areas in particular as the extra cost began to bite in October when global oil prices surged.
Angry motorists and other demonstrators, many accusing Macron of being out of touch with ordinary people, blocked roads across France on Saturday in a grassroots campaign dubbed the “Yellow Vests” that drew nearly 288,000 protesters.
More than 400 people were injured, 14 of them seriously, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said, with some frustrated drivers trying to ram through blockades, and at least 157 people were taken into police custody.
A woman protester died when she was accidentally hit by a panicked driver at one blockade.
Some maintained protests on highway slip-roads, tolls and roundabouts on Sunday.
In another Ifop poll in the JDD on Sunday, 62 percent of those surveyed said the government should prioritize policies to help household incomes even if it meant advancing more slowly on measures to fight climate change.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who said on Sunday he was sensitive to the sense of abandonment expressed by some protesters, stressed that the government would not back down on its fuel tax plans.
HT/VoT
A chance for me to repeat my question, What is the role of France?
The UK is often criticised for not knowing its place in the world since the loss of our Empire. But that is clearly unfair. We are pop culture masters, financial experts and innovators. We have an empire of the mind. At least in our own minds.
But France has no such consolation. Its language is no longer the lingua franca. Its revolutionary ideals were superseded by numerous other movements. Its soft power has dwindled as much as its hard power.
What role does France play?
•A counter-weight to Germany or a junior partner? Only at the sufferance of those East of the Rhine.
•An alternative to Anglo-Saxon commercialism? Even their own young aren’t buying that.
•A cultural wonder adorning the world? Not since WW1 has Paris been relevant. It seems even its cuisine has lost its distinctive crown.
To understand France you need to feel their sense of decliné. They are lost.
Their great tumults came to nothing. Their Revolutions and Reigns of Terror were mere footnotes in History. Not the High Peaks of mankind’s Liberation. What a waste! What a Loss! What’s the cause?
Probably the English. We have always been just that little bit too much for them.
Macron has been a bit of a disappointment, if he fails to get in next time it means Le Pen and the National Front are next in line. They are an interesting bunch, holocaust deniers, anti Semites at heart, Le Pen’s dad was a famous idiot.
To her (the daughters credit) she did throw the old fart out of the party, so obnoxious was he. Perhaps it is enough, but expect a raft of right wing mentality, anti abortion, anti gay marriage, general racism to appear. Even if they do stamp out CAGW BS and put Islam in the box it deserves.
Sorry, but blocking roads is not what peaceful protesters do. However much I might sympathize with why they are protesting, blocking roads creates a predictable public safety hazard. It also inconveniences other people who are either happy to pay the tax or have no choice but to continue driving anyway.
Sad overcast weather at Charles de Gaule, Paris and no one seems to care of any revolt. In fact, the People’s republic of France is divided roughly in two. Those who are on somehow government depended jobs and the rest.
Nothing revolutionary can happen there. All paths have been cut by sinister regulations.
Guess most French I see live on a day to day basis.
Socialism at it’s finest. Survive today primes over tomorrow.
In the end he crush it with the army, and use police to arrest the organisers,….
Globalists do not know how to, or even consider back-tracking.
They would sooner use force and intimidation.
Macron doesn’t give a schit about his popularity, he is getting Merkels positions, its a done deal, that is why she is grooming him like a mother and son.
He is a very dangerous greasy litrle b@stard who could very well over the next decade bring a European war with Russia on, should he get his EU army.
It’s not just vehicle fuel tax that is the problem, although that is the most visible. The Gilets Jaines are also protesting about proposed increases in gas and electricity prices, increased road tolls, income and local taxes, TV licecnces and various health costs, pollution charges in cities and registration of pedal cycles, wage freezes, tax increases, increase in pension age. At least according to a leaflet they are handing out. The action was triggered by a petition against the fuel price increases. According to a poll there is a large majority who support the action.
France is whacko – they get 75% of their power from nuclear plants, so produce CO2 at levels well below everyone else. Stranger still is their plan to reduce nuclear power.
“A man wearing a yellow vest, a symbol of a French drivers’ protest against higher fuel prices, attends the demonstration with an image of French president Emmanuel Macron, in Paris, France, November 17, 2018. REUTERS/Charles Platiau” ?
CTM , is there a picture that goes with this ?
At the most, this could turn out like the demonstrations in 1968 that forced De Gaulle out. While that was from the left, the center-right has yet to have a turn.
From what I know of French politics, Macron had to organize his own party, as the more established parties could not field a credible candidate, with a roundly demonized daughter of the National Front as the closest competitor. There could be considerable political change, as it looks like no one really has it together as far as organization, so any organized group could take over. I just don’t know French politics well enough to have any idea who.
Uh-ohs, trouble in Greenie-Weenie World?
And if Macron fails to get elected the next in line is LePen, of the National Front. Traditional an Anti Semitic party of narrow minded fascists, although under her hand it has tried to distance itself from this past, even to the extent of throwing her own father out of the party.
If not, then expect a raft of traditional right wing policies. Anti abortion, anti gay, anti freedom.
Even if they do kick CAGW into the long grass.
Since when has “anti freedom” been a right wing policy?
They really only hurt their citizens. Truck drivers will fill up outside of France, drive in and make their delivery and pickup and drive back out before fueling.
Same kind of thing here in the US. Because Pennsylvania has gone nuts with it’s fuel taxes my company requires we get special permission to do so and then will only authorize a 60 gallon purchase. When this truck driver runs into or across PA on I-70 or I-80 I top off in at the last authorized fuel point west of PA before entering the state. These fuel stops are some of the busiest and so I suspect everyone else is doing the same thing. I do this even if had full fuel when I left the terminal in Anderson, IN and only can put less than 50 gallons in. In short, PA doesn’t get hardly any fuel tax revenue from us or many other trucking companies. The Tolls on the PA Turnpike are bad enough. For what the collect the PA Turnpike should be three lanes wide all the way across and have gold plated guard rails.
Macron is a con-man, he’s just another one in the unhappy ROT France fiasco..
The problem of the “police state” France started with control-freak Sarko, who famously called the kids from the banlieu “racaille”, then lived it up himself in style with pop stars, and the champagne & caviar clique of uber wealthies.
He fancied himself a bit too much did “ME MR SARKO” sorting out the sub prime crisis single handed, at the same time as copying the British putting up speeding and CCTV cameras all over the country.
Understandably he was kicked out, putting that disastrous A-hole Hollande in his place who promised better but delivered promises in every direction without keeping a single one of them.
No suprise, the “new socialism” became as toxic a brand as “Teflon Tony” leaving the French version of “Gordon the Moron” to put up taxes even more by stealth, copying the British once again….
Who else but the ex-fiance/in bed with the bankers, Macron the con-man, claiming yet again to be able to reform France.
A smoke and mirrors bag of wind that never got elected at all, but crept into the holes vacated by that dishonest Motosport blagging twit with his side kick British wife who claimed to work for him FILLON et co…(the mafia was the whole family on the assemblee nationale gravy train, with all their emplois fictifs)….
…And of course that idiotic big mouthed girl from Brittany (from the LePen family mafia), and her equally stupid, big mouthed cross eyed sister Marion J- C- Maréchal LP.
What hope for France with the once mighty industrial base of yester-year filled with disastrously run companies like Air France, SNCF, Alsthom, and now Airbus?
HELL
A place defined where the French are the politicians, the Germans are the police, and the English are the cooks.
For Monsieur Macron, France is a superpower. He behaves like Monsieur Daladier in 1938.
Don’t know about simmering, as of noon EST reports are showing full-blown rioting. Macron brazenly lied about himself and his intentions and the actual electeurs of Frances are not amused.
“Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who said on Sunday he was sensitive to the sense of abandonment expressed by some protesters, stressed that the government would not back down on its fuel tax plans.”
Good of him. ( Time will tell. )