French police fired tear gas in order to push back Gilets Jaunes protesters who tried to march on European Parliament building in the eastern city of Strasbourg on the 24th consecutive weekend of protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s policies. The French Yellow Vests are increasingly adopting a hostile approach to the EU and blame the instution for many of France’s woes.
Around 2,000 protesters gathered around the seat of European Union legislative bodies in Strasbourg. Those behind the demos had planned make to the protest international by symbolically marching on the parliament building, a month before EU-wide parliamentary elections.
Local authorities had banned protests and barricaded the neighborhood where the parliament and other EU institutions are located as they feared widespread violence and disruption. The Police were then forced to fire a series of tear gas canisters into the demonstrators in order to keep them away from the buildings. The situation is still tense with widespread reports of rioting taking place.
It appears that the series of proposals and the attack on Political Islam by President Macron have fallen flat with the Yellow Vest protesters who want to see radical change in France. The protests that took place today in Paris, Lyon and Bordeaux mainly passed off peacefully.
In the first major domestic news conference of his entire presidency yesterday Macron promised to accelerate his reform programme but deliver it in a less aggressive manner in attempts to appeal to the notoriously powerful French Trade Union movement.
“Political Islam wants to secede from our republic,” he said, asking the government to be “intractable” against it. “We are talking about people who, in the name of a religion, pursue a political project,” he said.
He said the control of funds from abroad to some organisations should also be strengthened.
Macron also argued that France’s 1905 laws on secularism have been effective and should continue to be implemented.
“We must not hide when we talk about secularism. We do not really talk about secularism. We talk about the communitarianism that has settled in certain neighborhoods of the republic,” he said, referring to Muslim communities in France.
Under significant pressure Macron announced a rise in the minimum wage and scuttled the tax hikes. The announcement on Political Islam was totally unexpected but may in part be due to the growing poll number of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally that has promised to clamp down on Political Islam and immigration.
“I want (tax) cuts for people who work by significantly reducing income taxes,” said Macron.
He said the cuts would be worth five billion euros and financed by eliminating corporate tax breaks, longer work hours and reductions in public spending.
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