The Macron government, in the yellow trap | L …

PageI12 in France

From Paris

The months go by and French President Emmanuel Macron does not stop leaving the political and institutional nightmare that erupted in November 2018 when the first demonstrations of the yellow jackets broke out. Saturday after Saturday, with more or less success, the yellow wave does not dissolve. The executive has started to breathe with relief in recent weeks, when it was clearly found that the yellow mobilization had lost its vigor. But this weekend, the convergence on Avenue des Champs-Elysees between the yellow vest and the "black block" led to a new episode of scenes of violence and spectacular destruction whose objectives were symbols of the ostentatious wealth: violent groups took advantage of the manifestation of the jackets to loot and destroy one of the world's emblems of opulence and the distinctive sign of the Champs-Elysees, the restaurant Le Fouquet & # 39; s. They also attacked the central office of Hugo Boss, a bank, Lacoste, Nespresso, Foot Locker, Longchamp or Zara. The large avenue where the most expensive shops of the planet are concentrated, crosses one of the richest districts of the French capital. From the beginning of the demonstrations, the yellow jackets have made this exquisite urban area its strength plate. On November 24 and December 1, 2018, the Arc de Triomphe and his tomb of Unknown Soldier were looted. The impact of the latest images was huge and the government had to go out to extinguish the political fire that was invading it because of its inability to maintain public order. The French Prime Minister, Édouard Philippe, announced that, from now on, the demonstrations in the district and on the same avenue of the Champs-Élysées were prohibited. After the announcement, the first leader fell: Philippe advanced the dismissal of the prefect of Paris, Michel Delpuech.

The head of government blamed the police responsible that the "strategy" developed in the affirmation of the protesters this time is not applied "under satisfactory conditions". The problem is that these "satisfactory conditions" involve the repeated use of a repressive weapon, the BLD, which, during these four months of protests, left dozens of people mutilated with the eyes, feet and hands torn by BLD projectiles. The power thus transfers its rough management of this crisis to the action of the police. There is no alternative: if he represses too much, they are savages, and if he does not, he does not do his duty. The excessive use of force by police units has even prompted a warning from the United Nations. On March 6, the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights, the former President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, called on the French authorities to conduct "a thorough investigation into the excessive use of force" .

All the political construction designed by the presidency to emerge from the yellow crisis has collapsed. The government invented a "national debate" among the French during which it was necessary to discuss the major problems of the country, among which those posed by yellow vests. Macron has personally participated and even in indigestion in the debates broadcast on television. The recipe seemed to give results. The "president of the rich" descended into the sands of the city while between internal divisions, a certain fatigue, a radical infiltration and violence, the yellow jackets lost their upward movement. Emmanuel Macron reincarnated in France the profile of our Domingo Faustino Sarmiento: "the sword, the pen and the word". With the sword that he repressed, with the pen went to France to summon it to debate and with the word established a dialogue with society. The invariable logic that has been instituted in this confrontation has not changed and the government is back in the yellow circle. The demonstrations have never been extraordinarily mbadive but widespread and violent. During the last weekend of vandalism on the Champs-Elysees, the Black Bloc infiltrated the yellow jackets and repeated the scenes that took place on May 1, 2018 in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, during the destruction of Paris. A McDonald's. The Black Blocks are composed of far left activists and other currents from different political backgrounds. Although the vast majority of yellow vests are not ultra violent, these episodes have a twofold consequence: they underline at the same time the inefficiency of the government, they also tarnish the image of vests and encircle them in the 39, public space.

The government can not find a way out of it, especially since it has not essentially exposed its responses to the triple crisis that haunts it: political, social and institutional. This is the diagnosis of all the commentators, from right to left. In its last editorial, the liberal evening Le Monde wrote: "it is the efficiency of the state and its head as well as that of the public authorities which is in question". Le Monde suggests that, after the yellow jackets, it is "the mandate of Macron that is outstanding". This is the feeling that persists: that of a slight but persistent yellow shadow that disturbs the sleep of the ruler keeps him "suspended" without it hitting the window that extracts it from the nightmare .

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