M
Mordoror
Guest
True the YJ protest was also because of the division concentred urban areas versus emptied rural areas.Oddly enough, one of the major movement protesting a government in Western Europe in recent years precisely didn’t start because of any measure of reform, @muck.
The yellow vests started because of the price of gas (The carbon tax as if little France of 65 million people had any major impact on the world pollution as opposed to China or India), because of a lack of public service and hospital, post office and so on.
I think the straw that broke the camel back then was the deep division between rural and urban France, which has easier access to said public services and doesn’t have to worry much about driving. Could this happen elsewhere? Probably so.
I think @bfc1001 hits the nail on the head; all tinfoil hat aside, it’s fairly convenient for plenty of govt to somehow monitor closely any protests while claiming that “peaceful protests are a right”.
Not advocating any violence against the Police or the cars of the random everyday Joe, ideally peaceful protests would be listened to but I highly doubt that’s the case.
However if i remember well this came as a second point
The first point being the tax on oil. Much like the red caps protest. Which in both cases costed more than the taxes to be implemented would have cost
In the red caps case it was even more idiot when taxes were intended first toward foreign carriers that used french roads but didnt paid for their maintenance.
The odd thing is that both protests turned political to throw out the elected gov and/or national institutions
I'll go with muck on that. Dont like the gov actions? Vote. Engage yourself in politics. Engage yourself in an association. Dont torch prefectures, dont throw stones on cops, dont try to storm official buildings.
This trend is general and worrying because it harms the rule of laws. Admitely it is also the fault on our medias and politicians that hinder legitimacy by speech like "X was elected but he is not legit because while getting 51%of votes, that represents only 20% of the population"
Well, the rest should have voted if the rest wanted somebody else in power...
Moaning because the guy in power you didnt voted for (if you voted at all) is not the guy you may have wished is undermining democracy.
No wonder these movements left and right are attracted to authoritarian figures. They just should be carefull for what they wish for