FRANCE LATEST: MACRON APPEARS TO BE MAKING MORE CONCESSIONS TO SHUT DOWN PROTESTS
(NEWS, COMMENT, ANALYSIS)
The government in France put out the word Wednesday night that the fuel tax would be suspended not just for six months, but for all of next year (2019).
The leader of the opposition National Rally (former National Front) Marine Le Pen tweeted late Wednesday night that President Emmanuel Macron should pledge on his honor not to reintroduce the tax with the amended budget in the spring.
Whether this apparent concession will help stamp out protests is uncertain.
Four have died and hundreds have been injured in the weeks of protests by the "yellow vests" but now high school and university students with separate grievances than those of the "yellow vests" are organizing and staging on campus protests shutting down schools across France.
They are pledging to take to the streets this Saturday with those protesting against the fuel taxes that have already sharply increased the cost of gasoline and diesel fuel.
If that scenario materializes it will put France's special riot police (the CRS) under more pressure perhaps forcing them to increase the tempo of tear gas, stun grenade and water cannon attacks on protesters.
The Elysee Palace (the Presidential Residence-Office) put out the word Wednesday night that it fears a group of thousands coming to Paris on Saturday to kill and destroy or as the Google translation of the BFM-TV report put it:
Link to English translation of BFM-TV website....LINK
The leader of the opposition National Rally (former National Front) Marine Le Pen tweeted late Wednesday night that President Emmanuel Macron should pledge on his honor not to reintroduce the tax with the amended budget in the spring.
Whether this apparent concession will help stamp out protests is uncertain.
Four have died and hundreds have been injured in the weeks of protests by the "yellow vests" but now high school and university students with separate grievances than those of the "yellow vests" are organizing and staging on campus protests shutting down schools across France.
They are pledging to take to the streets this Saturday with those protesting against the fuel taxes that have already sharply increased the cost of gasoline and diesel fuel.
If that scenario materializes it will put France's special riot police (the CRS) under more pressure perhaps forcing them to increase the tempo of tear gas, stun grenade and water cannon attacks on protesters.
The Elysee Palace (the Presidential Residence-Office) put out the word Wednesday night that it fears a group of thousands coming to Paris on Saturday to kill and destroy or as the Google translation of the BFM-TV report put it:
"to break and kill"
In an interview on BFM-TV Thursday morning, a minister in the government, Jacqueline Gorault, warned against travel to Paris on Saturday claiming that people bent on violence were coming to the city. Her message appears to be an attempt to suppress demonstrators from showing up by sowing fear.
Social media is filled with calls for protesters to converge on the "Main Street" of Paris, the Champs-Elysees, on Saturday.
A poll done for BFM-TV shows 72 percent public support for the "yellow vests" protest.
Some 15 high schools in Paris were the site of blockades Thursday morning with an attempt to block the city's Sorbonne University by 40 people failing.
Social media is filled with calls for protesters to converge on the "Main Street" of Paris, the Champs-Elysees, on Saturday.
A poll done for BFM-TV shows 72 percent public support for the "yellow vests" protest.
Some 15 high schools in Paris were the site of blockades Thursday morning with an attempt to block the city's Sorbonne University by 40 people failing.
Link to English translation of BFM-TV website....LINK
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