Paris Fills with Garbage and Is Set on Fire after Macron Raises Age for Retirement Benefits

The French government raised the retirement age from 62 to 64.  The pension reform bill was approved via special constitutional powers, without going through a vote in the lower house – where President Macron’s party does not have a majority. A critic noted that invoking Article 49.3 in the French Constitution allows for the creation of a dictatorship. Garbage is piling up in Paris as garbage workers are striking in protest. Riot police in Paris are clashing with anti-Macron forces. The Macron regime says that says that without swift action the pensions deficit will soar within four years to more than $13 billion and climbing.

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Paris is burning.  Again.

Elon Musk said it best, “France seems to love having a good strike/riot from time to time.”

Indeed.

This time the fiery protests broke out in Paris (and beyond) over pension reforms that have been forced through by the government. These reforms will push the retirement age from 62 to 64.

The pension reforms were already widely controversial as it is. However, it was how they were pushed through that infuriated the masses. The pension reform bill was approved without going through a vote in the lower house – where President Macron’s party does not have a majority. This move sparked, arguably, the most anger amongst the French people.

CNN:

Figures from pollster IFOP show that 83% of young adults (18-24) and 78% of those aged over 35 found the government’s manner of passing the bill “unjustified.” Even among pro-Macron voters – those who voted for him in the first round of last year’s presidential election, before a runoff with his far-right adversary – a majority of 58% disagreed with how the law was passed, regardless of their thoughts about the reforms.

Why is Macron so determined on this even though it’s unpopular?

Macron made social reforms, especially of the pensions system, a flagship policy of his 2022 re-election and it’s a subject he has championed for much of his time in office. However, Thursday’s move has so inflamed opposition across the political spectrum, that some are questioning the wisdom of his hunger for reforms.

Figures from pollster IFOP show that 83% of young adults (18-24) and 78% of those aged over 35 found the government’s manner of passing the bill “unjustified.” Even among pro-Macron voters – those who voted for him in the first round of last year’s presidential election, before a runoff with his far-right adversary – a majority of 58% disagreed with how the law was passed, regardless of their thoughts about the reforms.

Singing the National Anthem after enacting “dictatorship” probably wasn’t a smart move.

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To make matters worse, garbage workers are on strike, and as a result, the City of Lights has fallen into a trashy heap of darkness.

New York Times:

Mounds of food waste piled in view of the Eiffel Tower. Small cobblestone streets lined with overflowing garbage bins. The bank of the Seine skirted by heaps of trash.

For more than a week now, garbage workers in parts of Paris and other cities across France have been on strike, protesting President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the age when most workers begin collecting a government pension to 64, from 62.

The refuse rising in insalubrious piles, some taller than the pedestrians trying to avoid them, is a smelly, visceral symbol of popular outrage at the government’s plan. It also serves as a physical reminder of the hardship of professions not suited for old age, garbage workers say.

But it’s the violence and fires that are capturing the most worldwide attention.

These clips of fire-ravaged cities look very symbolic of the  dystopian world we live in at the moment.

The scenes are incredible. The smell of “revolution” is definitely in the air.

Riot police in Paris clash with anti-Macron forces. The cops loudly BANG their riot shields on the streets as a way to intimidate the protesters.

Read full article here…




France: Macron’s Minority Government Defeated on Vaccine Passports

French President Macron’s minority government wanted to extend the policy whereby anyone entering France has to show proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test. However, right-wing populists joined right-wing Republicans and the hard-left eco-party united to vote against the policy 219 votes to 195. The French Minister of Health admitted on a prior occasion that vaccine passports are a “disguised” form of mandatory vaccines, despite President Macron claiming vaccine mandates “will not be compulsory.”

French President Emmanuel Macron suffered a humiliating setback in parliament after his vaccine passport scheme was defeated.

Macron’s minority government wanted to extend the policy whereby anyone entering France has to show proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test.

However, the right-wing populist National Rally (RN), the hard-left La France Insoumise (LFI) and the right-wing Republicains (LR) all united to vote against the policy.

Macron’s government lost the vote by a margin of 219 votes to 195.

“The bill’s defeat was met with wild cheering and a standing ovation from opposition lawmakers, in footage that was widely circulated on social media,” reports the Telegraph.

Read full article here…




French Protesters Surrounded Pfizer HQ Chanting “Assassins”

Protests have been energized by French President Emmanuel Macron admitting last month that part of his “strategy” on tackling COVID is to “piss off” the unvaccinated as much as possible by limiting their freedoms and coercing them into taking shots. France has implemented a vaccine passport, the green health pass, that limits the unvaccinated from visiting cafes and other venues, making them second class citizens. Video shot this past weekend in Paris shows thousands of demonstrators surrounding the headquarters of Pfizer in the nation’s capitol and chanting “assassins!” in protest of vaccine mandates.

Video shot this past weekend in Paris France shows thousands of protesters surrounding the headquarters of Pfizer in the nation’s capitol and chanting “assassins!” in protest of vaccine mandates.

Protests have been raging in France for a long time, and have been energised by French President Emmanuel Macron admitting last month that part of his “strategy” on tackling COVID is to “piss off” the unvaccinated as much as possible by limiting their freedoms and coercing them into taking shots.

Macron made the comments in an interview with the Le Parisien newspaper, noting “As for the non-vaccinated, I really want to piss them off. And we will continue to do this, to the end. This is the strategy.”

Read full article here…




The Dehumanization and Stigmatization of the Unvaxxed

President Macron of France said that he wanted to ‘piss off’ unvaccinated people until the “bitter end”. He said that when freedom threaten others, it is irresponsible and “An irresponsible person is not a citizen.” Canadian Prime minister Justin Trudeau said that the unvaccinated do not believe in science and progress, and he labeled them as being racist, and he asked the question, “Do we tolerate these people?” The unvaccinated are a demonized minority, even though the Covid shot doesn’t prevent infection or spread of the virus, showing that the aim of the policies are for control rather than health. Some critics compare the separation of the unvaxxed to Nazi Germany.

Story at-a-glance

  • In a horrifying altercation, a German police officer denounced the humanity of the unvaccinated. This is but one sign that mass formation psychosis is at work
  • “Mass formation psychosis” is the explanation for how the Germans accepted the atrocities by the Nazi party in the 1930s, and it’s the explanation for why so many around the world support medical apartheid and the dehumanization of the unvaccinated now
  • The stigmatization of the unvaxxed is all the more irrational when you consider that the COVID shot doesn’t prevent infection or spread of the virus. “Fully vaxxed” individuals are just as infectious and “dangerous” as the unjabbed
  • While high-level officials continue to use the term “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” suggesting the COVID-jabbed play no role in the epidemiology of COVID-19, there’s ample evidence that the “fully vaccinated” have a relevant role in transmission and outbreaks
  • For example, in Massachusetts, 469 new COVID-19 cases were identified during July 2021. Of those, 346 (74%) were either fully or partially jabbed, and 274 (79%) were symptomatic. This proves the COVID jabs cannot end the pandemic, and may in fact be preventing it from dying out naturally

Read full article here…




French President Macron’s New Carbon Tax on Fuel Incites Hundreds of Thousands to Join ‘Yellow Vest’ Protests

The mainstream media in the US has been downplaying the “yellow vest” protests in France that are an uprising against a 6% increase in carbon taxes as the country follows its commitment to UN climate treaties and agreements that are based in global warming lies.  President Trump rejected US participation in the Paris Accord that seeks to phase-out diesel and gasoline vehicles by 2040.  Higher taxes do not equate to lower carbon emissions. 

Summary by JW Williams

President Macron, a global warming tax enthusiast, has raised tax on diesel fuel and gasoline, sparking protests across the country by as many as 300,000 demonstrators who are wearing yellow vests, which all drivers are required to have on hand for safety purposes.  The Yellow Vests are ethnic Europeans from the working and middle class that are heavily taxed at at rate of 37%; protests have taken place in more than 2000 areas across the country, not just urban areas like Paris.  The Yellow Vests are expected to shut down traffic again this weekend; over the past few weeks, cars and other materials have been set afire, and two people have died during the demonstrations.
Macron is dedicated to replacing France’s current energy sources with green renewables, which includes a plan to phase-out sales of gas and diesel cars by 2040, and to implement his ambitious model in Paris by 2030.  Macron is seen as the “president for the rich” and being out-of-touch with the people.  His approval rating has plummeted to 26%.  He refuses to drop the unpopular new tax.  France raised its carbon tax from $35 a ton in 2017 to $51 a ton in 2018, and it will reach $98 by 2022.  Even though carbon taxes have been raised, along with government spending, CO2 levels have not been reduced, according to former environmental advisor, Nicolas Hulot.
Hulot, a former television personality who served as Macron’s staggeringly popular environment minister, resigned during an August radio interview that took Macron by surprise.  Hulot criticized Macron for failing to follow through on his promise to reduce reliance on nuclear energy, which provides 72% of the country’s electricity, and to shutter old nuke facilities.  Hulot also criticized Macron for failing to protect the environment from pesticides and other pollutants.  People often conflate harmless CO2 with pollutants.
The Yellow Vests have been characterized as fascists led by the far-right, but the participants are taxpayers from the working class and retired people living on benefits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpxiKNTiiv4

From the Washington Post:

France’s climate change commitments trigger rising diesel prices and street protests

The French president is under fire again, this time over rising fuel prices.

On Saturday, more than 282,700 people, many clad in yellow vests, took to — and, in many places, also literally took — the streets, according to the French Interior Ministry. The ministry said a network of drivers blocked roads at some 2,000 locations across the country, generating backups for miles and causing one death.

A 63-year-old protester was killed in the eastern Savoie region when a driver panicked by demonstrators accidentally accelerated a vehicle into the crowd, French media reported. In other incidents nationwide, 106 people were reported injured, five seriously.

The protesters’ chief complaint: the rising cost of diesel fuel. The recent price hike is a direct result of President Emmanuel Macron’s commitment to curbing climate change, which included higher carbon taxes for 2018, the first full year of his term. But beyond the diesel issue, many turned out Saturday to voice any number of other frustrations with the “president for the rich,” who is seen as increasingly removed from ordinary people’s concerns.

Diesel, a fossil fuel, is known for the pollutants it emits into the air. Although it was traditionally taxed at the same rate as gasoline, that is no longer the case: Taxes on diesel have risen 6.2 percent per liter this year, as part of the government’s efforts to protect clean air. The problem is, diesel remains the most common fuel in France, leading many to view recent policies as an attack on working people more than an environmental safeguard.

The stirrings of the “yellow vest” campaign behind Saturday’s protests began this summer, with online petitions urging Macron to reconsider. But the loudest voice was that of Jacline Mouraud, a white-haired hypnotist and grandmother of three from Brittany who has become the star of the movement.

“I have two little words for Mr. Macron and his government,” she said in a YouTube video that has garnered millions of views. “You have persecuted drivers since the day you took office. This will continue for how long?”

On Saturday, Mouraud was asked to explain the death of the protester. “I deplore the death of this woman,” she said, speaking to Europe 1 radio. “But who is responsible for this situation? The French government is responsible for the death of this woman.”

Her view of the government is not a fringe opinion. According to a poll published Friday by the Odoxa agency for France’s Le Figaro newspaper — albeit with only 1,000 respondents — as many as 3 in 4 French people agree. Whatever the actual figure, Macron’s opponents, particularly on France’s political extremes, have sought to capitalize on the sentiment, using the yellow-vest movement to cast the president as an out-of-touch elitist.

That is a common criticism of Macron, whose approval ratings have recently plummeted to as low as 26 percent. Even President Trump noted Macron’s low popularity in a flurry of tweets after a tense visit to Paris last week.

Laurent Wauquiez, the leader of France’s right-wing Les Républicains, announced he would demonstrate Saturday. “We’re offered a punitive environmental policy that involves massive increases in taxes,” Wauquiez said in an interview. “I’m tired of the fact that in this country, environmental policy always comes by way of taxes.”

In response, Macron has offered his “respect and consideration” to the protesters but has refused to budge. He is also far from alone in advocating higher carbon taxes.

The United Nations contends taxing carbon dioxide emissions is an essential component of halting a steady rise in global temperatures. It was a key element of the world body’s major October report predicting Earth’s atmosphere may warm by up to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit over preindustrial levels as soon as 2040, potentially triggering a global crisis decades earlier than expected.

Read full article here…

 




France: President Macron Calls for a European Army to Counter Perceived Threats from Russia, China and Donald Trump

President Macron of France, now the ostensible leader of the EU since Merkel’s fall, is calling for a “true European army” to allow the EU defend itself from threats Russia, China and even Donald Trump in the US.  Macron cited Trump’s announcement to quit a cold-war era disarmament treaty with Russia was as a threat to Europe.  Europe is dependent on the US as Americans finance more than 22% of NATO’s budget. 

Emmanuel Macron has called for the creation of a “true European army” to allow the EU defend itself from threats ranging from Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin.

The French president has pushed for closer EU defence union since coming to power last year but has been so far met with limited success amid foot-dragging by other member states.

“We have to protect ourselves with respect to China, Russia and even the United States of America,” Mr Macron told France’s Europe 1 radio in an interview.

“When I see President Trump announcing that he’s quitting a major disarmament treaty which was formed after the 1980s Euro-missile crisis that hit Europe, who is the main victim? Europe and its security.”

The French president continued: “We will not protect the Europeans unless we decide to have a true European army.

“We need a Europe which defends itself better alone, without just depending on the United States, in a more sovereign manner.”

Mr Macron was speaking in Verdun, northeast France, as part of a week-long tour of battlefields leading up to First World War Armistice centenary commemorations on Sunday.

The French head of state will receive world leaders including Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin for commemoration ceremonies in Paris on Remembrance Sunday.

The election of Mr Trump to the White House appears to have given more urgency to the cause of boosting the EU’s defence capabilities, with leaders warning they cannot simply rely on the United States.

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said last year that “deference to Nato can no longer be used as a convenient alibi to argue against greater European efforts”.

France is the strongest and most vocal proponent of an EU army but Germany has also tentatively endorsed Mr Macron’s proposals for a joint command structure for military interventions.

Read full article here…

 




French President Macron: Europe Entering the Age of ‘Unprecedented’ Mass Migration

French President Macron said that Africans will be flooding into Europe “for many years to come” as a result of “bombshell” population growth, poverty, political conflicts and climate change.  Macron cited Stephen Smith, the French-American author of The Rush to Europe, who predicts that the number of Africans living in Europe will grow from 9 million to between 150 million and 200 million within the next 30 years.  Smith said that this scenario will end Europe’s generous social programs.

‘Bombshell’ population growth in Africa means Europe is entering an “unprecedented” age of mass migration, Emmanuel Macron has said, asserting that the two continents’ destinies are “bound”.

“The migratory phenomenon we are facing will be historic,” declared the French president in a television appearance Sunday night, when he announced that “great poverty”, “climate change”, and “geopolitical conflicts” will see Africans flooding into Europe “for many years to come”.

To back up his point, Macron pointed to “bombshell” population gr0wth across the third world continent, which he added has been “tremendously well described” by French-American journalist and professor Stephen Smith in a recent book.

“[Africans] are mostly turning to Europe because the continent [of Europe] is not an island, because of our location, and because Europe has its destiny bound with Africa,” stated the vehemently pro-EU French figure during a two-hour long interview.

Smith, the Africa expert to whom Macron referred during his appearance on BFMTV, estimates that the number of Africans living in Europe will grow from nine million to between 150 million and 200 million within the next 30 years.

Read full article here…




France: President Macron Declares He Will Govern Like a Roman God


Macron summoned 900 members of parliament to the palace of the Sun King, Louis XIV, in Versailles, and announced he will reign like Jupiter, the Roman god of gods, who weighs his rare pronouncements carefully.  He threatened to overrule lawmakers with a referendum if they try to frustrate his ‘reforms’. Such massive assemblies are usually reserved for times of national crisis but, in this case, it is viewed as an expression of political grandeur.  Macron refused a meeting with journalists last week because, according to his aides, his “complex thought process lends itself badly to the game of question-and-answer with journalists”.

French president Emmanuel Macron has declared he will govern France like Jupiter, the Roman king of the gods, shortly after officials told the media his thought process was “too complex” for journalists to understand.

Summoning over 900 politicians from both houses of the French parliament to a rare Congress at the palace of Louis XIV – the ‘Sun King’ – in Versailles, he threatened to overrule lawmakers with a referendum if they try to frustrate the “reforms” he wishes to impose on the legislature. Such assemblies are usually reserved for times of national crisis.

Reuters reports him as saying he desires to reign as a “Jupiterian” president – “a remote, dignified figure, like the Roman god of gods, who weighs his rare pronouncements carefully”.

This bizarre statement of intent comes just days after Macron scrapped the president’s traditional Bastille Day press conference, with an Elysée Palace official claiming the 39-year-old’s thoughts are “too complex” for journalists.

Macron’s “complex thought process lends itself badly to the game of question-and-answer with journalists”, the spokesman explained – prompting much mockery in the French press.

It has been speculated that Macron is keen to cultivate an aloof, almost imperial aura after being derided as a placeman for the unpopular socialist François Hollande, in whose government he served as economy minister, or as a poodle for Angela Merkel, the German chancellor widely regarded as the European Union’s driving force.

“You are the heir of François Hollande,” scoffed nationalist rival Marine Le Pen during their head-to-head election debate. “We now call you Baby Hollande; Hollande Junior!”

She added that, whatever the outcome of the election, “France will be led by a woman: either me or Mrs. Merkel.”

Much of the commentary on Macron’s alleged natural submissiveness hints at his relationship with his wife – twenty-five years his senior – with Italy’s larger-than-life former president Silvio Berlusconi teasing that he is “a nice lad with a good-looking mum”.

Efforts by the EU loyalist to strengthen his public standing by picking fights with the governments of Central Europe, who have been resolutely defiant in the face of attempts by Brussels to impose compulsory migrant quotas on them, have been less than successful.

Hungarian premier Viktor Orbán gently dismissed him as “a new boy” who had yet to find his feet.

“Macron’s entrance wasn’t too encouraging, as he thought the best way to show friendship was to immediately kick Central European countries. This isn’t how we do things around here, but he’ll soon get to know his way around,” he added.

Read full article here…