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Macron to set out fix for ‘yellow vest’ anger
PARIS, April 15, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – France’s Emmanuel Macron aims to
kickstart a new chapter in his presidency on Monday with a series of policy
announcements based on a major voter listening exercise launched in response
to the “yellow vest” revolt.
Macron will give a speech at 1800 GMT setting out the “first concrete
measures” to be taken in response to the grievances aired at over 10,000
townhall-style meetings between January and March or posted online, the
presidency told AFP.
One of Macron’s aides told AFP that the country could look forward to “a
new act” in his nearly-two-year-old presidency, marked by “profound changes”
aimed at drawing the line under five months of often violent anti-government
protests.
The task of trying to satisfy the many, sometimes competing demands
emanating from the “Grand National Debate” will be a tricky one for the 41-
year-old leader, whose reform drive was abruptly knocked off course by the
yellow vests.
Summing up the weight of anticipation on Macron’s shoulders Senate leader
Gerard Larcher, a member of the opposition Republicans, told Le Figaro
newspaper on Saturday: “He won’t get a second chance.”
The yellow vest movement, so called for the fluorescent jackets worn by
demonstrators, began in rural and small-town France over fuel taxes and
quickly snowballed into a broader anti-capitalist, anti-establishment
rebellion.
In January, Macron launched a series of debates to try to take the heat
out of the protests.
Between January 15 and March 15, nearly 500,000 people took part in 10,134
meetings in community halls across the country, with hundreds of thousands
more filling out questionnaires or offering up unprompted suggestions on the
official debate website.
Macron, who criss-crossed the country to engage local mayors and residents
in marathon discussions, promised the French at the outset of the process to
“transform anger into solutions” afterwards.
But as they returned to the streets of Paris and other cities Saturday for
their 22nd straight week of protests, many yellow vests dismissed whatever he
had to offer.
“Great National Debate, great blah blah,” and “Macron, we expect nothing
from your announcements” read some of the banners waved by protestors in
Paris.
Interior ministry figures put the number of demonstrators at 31,000 on
Saturday, a far cry from the 282,000 that took part in the first edition, but
up from 22,300 a week before.
– ‘Double or quits’ –
Former investment banker Macron was caught off guard when many first-time
protesters began occupying roundabouts in mid-November to protest policies
widely seen as tilted towards the rich and big business.
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Admitting to failures, he unveiled a 10-billion-euro ($11.3-billion)
package of tax cuts and income top-ups for the working poor and pensioners
and travelled into the rural heartland to try to reconnect with voters.
But most yellow vests boycotted the consultations, accusing Macron of
prejudging the outcome by taking their top demands — including the return of
a popular “solidarity tax” on the rich which he cut and citizen-sponsored
referendums — off the table from the outset.
Young people also were markedly absent from the process.
Warming up for Macron this week, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe declared
nonetheless that France had spoken.
The debate, he said, had shown up “enormous exasperation” over the
country’s tax burden, the highest in the world, according to the Paris-based
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, with taxes equivalent
to 46.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
“We need to lower taxes, and lower them more quickly,” Philippe, a centre-
right fiscal hawk, said.
Any move to offset tax cuts with steep spending cuts could bring the
combative French onto the streets in even greater numbers.
“It’s double or quits for Macron,” Le Journal du Dimanche weekly newspaper
wrote Sunday.
“If he succeeds, he’s back on the road to 2022 (the next presidential
election). If he fails to convince, his capacity to carry out reforms will be
jeopardised.”
– Making planet great, again –
Beyond the frustration with taxes and elites the debates showed ordinary
citizens impatient to have more of a say in the running of the country.
Philippe called it one of the “deafening” messages of the process and
vowed that Macron, who is looking for a second wind ahead of next month’s
European Parliament elections, would respond.
The former economy minister, who campaigned on a message of political
renewal, is expected to curb the privileges enjoyed by senior civil servants
and former presidents — a source of fierce resentment among voters.
Presidential aides have hinted he will also push ahead with plans to
reduce the number of national lawmakers, increase the number of civil
servants involved in service delivery at local level and put a greater focus
on climate change.
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