After France’s six-month moratorium on fuel tax hikes failed to impress the so-called Yellow Vest movement, French President Emmanuel Macron is considering amending a wealth which some say goes too easy on the rich, according to Reuters.
In other words; the average French citizen will still suffer from crippling taxes in the name of fighting climate change, but hey – the rich will feel the sting too.
Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said all tax-related policies needed to be periodically evaluated and, if deemed not to be working, should be changed. He said the wealth tax could be reassessed in the autumn of 2019. –Reuters
“If a measure that we have taken, which is costing the public money, turns out not to be working, if it’s not going well, we’re not stupid – we would change it,” said Griveaux.
To be clear, a French government official has claimed Macron’s administration is “not stupid” while said administration has also managed to guide France into a nationwide meltdown over ill-conceived tax policies.
Meanwhile, recent OECD data just placed France ahead of Denmark as the most taxed country in 2017, as the country’s tax-to-GDP ratio is the highest of any advanced nation.
Saturday violence anticipated
As the Yellow Vest protests enter their fourth week, French authorities are expecting a day of “great violence“ on Saturday, as “a hard core of several thousand people” are expected to come to Paris “to break and kill,” according to FranceInfo.
The government warning comes amid a wholesale rejection of Macron’s six-month suspension of planned fuel hikes earmarked to fight climate change.
“The French are not sparrows and don’t want the crumbs the government is giving them. They want the baguette,” Yellow Vest leader Benjamin Cauchy told BFM TV, adding ” We didn’t want a suspension, we want the past increase in the tax on fuels to be canceled immediately.”
Cauchy then told La Depeche that “The Yellow Vests wish to act on Saturday,” when asked if the violent protests will continue – though he added that the movement needs to become “pacifist and non-violent” – as it began three weeks ago.
Decidedly not pacifists are thousands of high school students who have begun to join the Yellow Vest movement – violently clashing with police as they begin to protest over their own causes; primarily the rising cost of education.
Les manifestants font le tour des lycées pour recruter pic.twitter.com/fYGOpjp5Cp
— France 3 Franche-Comté (@F3FrancheComte) December 5, 2018
“In some places, Marseille and Toulouse, we see the strongest problems and especially with violence that has never been seen,” said Jean-Michel Blanquer, France’s Minister of Education.
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