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Anti-government protesters who have blocked roads and fuel depots across France this week will hold new demonstrations in Paris Saturday, while Emmanuel Macron struggles to quell a climate of national challenge.
The "vests yellows"A movement of citizens (dressed in yellows) – named after the high-visibility fluorescent vest of protesters – surprised the French president by surprise.The movement has no leader and its ad hoc barricades to Toll booths, roundabouts and fuel depots were organized on social media.
The movement, which began by protesting rising fuel taxes, has become a more generous flood of inequality, a political class perceived as being cut off from reality, and a constantly negative image of prosecutor Macron as "president of rich".
A poll for Le Figaro on Friday showed that 77% of French people thought it legitimate that the demonstrations planned in Paris were legitimate, even suggesting those who did not guard roadblocks day and night in the towns, villages and suburbs of the province identified with the feeling to be disconnected from the class power.
Marie, 31, a maternal assistant in the Var, in the south of France, protested all week toll. "People are exasperated, there is so much anger: taxes are rising, our wages are not there. When you work hard, you feel unfair, "she said.
"My retired parents can not make ends meet and have had to find work to distribute flyers. The government does not listen. For me, Macron is the president of the rich, he reduces the taxes of the rich, ignoring the rest of us. Politicians are cut off from our lives.
"The officials are a great oligarchy. We can not trust the media either. I would think of voting at Marine Le Pen, but the whole political class is disappointing and I wonder why I vote at all. I fear that the future of my three children is even worse than that of me. "
Two people were accidentally killed and more than 530 injured, including 17 seriously, in a week-long protests and roadblocks against what a 30-year-old factory worker who frequented roadblocks in the south from France has described as "broken society where we" We count again on a few cents to arrive at the end of the month, sick of politicians who do not care to steal the poor and give to the rich.
Macron, who built his political identity on the refusal to back down from public pressure or street protests, called this week for a better "dialogue" to explain his policy.
The centrist president has insisted that his "transformation" of France by a relaxation of labor legislation and a reform of the functioning of the welfare state would benefit ordinary French citizens, struggling with decades of unemployment massif.
But he also promised that the authorities would be "uncompromising" if the demonstrations degenerated into disorder. The government ordered police this week to dismantle the remaining roadblocks, particularly those located around fuel depots and sites of strategic importance.
The French island of Reunion, off the coast of South Africa, with 850,000 inhabitants, has experienced its worst wave of violence for almost 30 years after riots began on the sidelines of the demonstrations. The unemployment rate of the island is 28% – three times higher than that of metropolitan France – and more than 40% of the population lives below the poverty line.
Speaking of events on the island, while curfews were imposed in some areas to break up protests, Macron said, "We will not be accommodating because we can not accept what we have seen."
Dominique, 50, unemployed technician at a roadblock in the city of Martigues, near Marseille, said: "It's much more than fuel. The government left us with nothing. "
Macron, whose personal popularity rating has hit a new low of less than 30%, has attempted to qualify as "humble." During a televised interview last week, he admitted that he "had not managed to reconcile the French with their leaders" and had pledged to give more weight to the provinces. in policy development.
"There are legitimate grievances that need to be heard," he told his office on Wednesday.
