Macron Won’t Put Question of Resignation Up for French Referendum – Journo
You can listen to the full audio of the interview here: https://soundcloud.com/radiosputnik/the-french-people-want-more-power-in-policy-making-journalist
The first referendum in 14 years could take place in France in May as part of President Emmanuel Macron’s response to the ongoing series of weekend ‘yellow vests’ protests. The newspaper Journal du Dimanche reported that Macron was planning to organise the vote on the same day as European parliament elections: on May 26th.
According to the publication, one of the questions the French would be asked is whether they want to reduce the number of national lawmakers — a campaign pledge by Macron, as well as whether they favour imposing term-limits on legislators.
Radio Sputnik discussed the possibility of France holding its first referendum in 14 years with Ramin Mazaheri, PressTV’s Chief Correspondent in Paris.
Sputnik: What do we know about this proposed referendum and how likely is it to happen in your opinion?
Ramin Mazaheri: The Yellow Vests have no clear programme; there are literally dozens and dozens of demands which are associated with them and the reason that there are so many demands is because France has submitted to the dictates of Brussels for eight years and they have embraced far-right economic austerity, and austerity has totally created a lost decade of economic growth, high employment and suppressed wages, and reduce government services. So, you know, we should see why the Yellow vests have so very many demands. Austerity accumulates; it’s been eight years, so you always have to keep that in mind.
But the idea of more referendums, that this something that truly has risen to the top of the list of their demands… why is that? It’s because in the past decade, it has become painfully clear to the French that their politicians just don’t care a bit for the popular will. Macron, you know, he’s totally done away with the false promises of his predecessor, Francois Hollande, because he openly says he doesn’t care about public opinion at all. He says that public opinion will not affect his policy decisions whatsoever. This is obviously contrary to the modern idea of democracy. So this new demand for a referendum has to be viewed as a reaction to the dominance of the French elites in policy-making. The French people want more power in policy-making.
We have to keep in mind that out of all of the Western governments, the presidency of France has the most power, and we have to combine this reality with another one, that Macron has more power than any [French] president in recent memory, and that’s because he has an absolute majority in Parliament and because he also has total control over his own party, which is full of political novices, they owe their entire careers completely to Macron.
Macron is known for ruling like a Roman God, Jupiter; he’s also known as the president of the rich. So a referendum would reinject democracy into France’s Fifth Republic, that’s the background for this demand for the referendum. The French want direct democracy because their elected leaders, in their indirect democracy, they’re not only not succeeding, they’re not even listening to public opinion. There hasn’t been a referendum in France in 14 years, not since 2005, and French voters then rejected the Lisbon Treaty on the European Union Constitution, and what happened? The vote was totally ignored. So it’s important to keep in mind that Many Yellow vests view a referendum as some sort of cure-all for the French democracy. History proves that that’s not necessarily the case in France. The only country which seems to have incorporated referendums in an effective manner is Switzerland, and France clearly wants to emulate their neighbour in this respect, but these are two very different countries with very different political systems, so it’s not really that simple.
Macron has stated that the idea of a referendum is being discussed, it will be held on the same day as EU elections, but it’s not a done deal. I would say that a referendum is likely to happen because it’s avery attention grabbing way for Macron to say, “Look, I’m not ruling like Jupiter, I am being democratic.” However it’s something which, depending on the issues which are being voted on, this is something which could have very little political risk for Macron.
Sputnik: Let’s talk in greater detail about these issues that could be deliberated?
Ramin Mazaheri: Well that’s really the key question here, right? I mean, if you listen to the Yellow Vests, the most popular question would be: Should President Macron resign? But I think we can all agree that there is no way that Macron is going to put that question up for referendum. It’s really very ironic that Macron, I’m sure he’s going to refuse the hold new elections, because that is exactly what he ordered Venezuela to do. Macron and other EU leaders, they gave Venezuelan leader Nicholas Maduro just eight days to hold new elections or they will recognize someone else, someone who’s never received a presidential vote, as Venezuela’s new president, so it’s really a case of hypocrisy from France, but that is nothing new at all.
So what the government is proposing right now about the referendum is to have just one question and that’s to ask voters if they want to reduce the number of parliamentarians and limit the number of terms they may serve. I think that all of our listeners will immediately grasp that this is not a major interest for the Yellow Vests. It will not affect their purchasing power, it will not touch austerity, and we should see that this is really quite a neoliberal idea once again, because it’s a way to reduce the size of France’s government. So we see that Macron is actually trying to use the referendum, and it’s not decided yet, this is what he’s floating in the media, to push the very same neoliberal agenda. He’s not talking about putting up ideas which the average French person cares about, so it’s really a tone deaf move if he goes forward with just this one question, and France’s politicians have said exactly that. They’ve said that if this is the only question on the referendum, it’s going to be a total failure. Reducing the number of legislators actually is one of Macron’s campaign pledges, so it’s amazing that despite his massive unpopularity and the massive protests that have really undermined his international image, he’s on the precipice of sticking with pursuing his very, very unpopular political agenda.
Sputnik: What the Yellow Vests envisioned for a referendum is obviously going to be quite different. They want questions on a number of socioeconomic issues.
Ramin Mazaheri: You know, for example, Macron has rushed through many, many sweeping reforms which are so very unpopular and all of which are designed to make France more in line with the American system, the English system, the German system, and what is on the docket for this year is major right-wing roll-backs to the unemployment system and the social security system. So the Yellow Vests, they would want ideally those types of issues to be on the referendum, to really talk about public policy and the policies that really affect the average French person, the average French household, the pensioner, everybody.
The views and opinions expressed by the speaker do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.
“and austerity has totally created a lost decade of economic growth, high employment and suppressed wages, and reduce government services.”
You mean high UNemployment, right?
The article doesn’t include the link to the full radio interview which Sputink puts on Sound Cloud. That write up is only partial.
https://soundcloud.com/radiosputnik/the-french-people-want-more-power-in-policy-making-journalist
I did say “high UNemployment” – so just a typo. Any bets on when France has “high employment” again? Uh…I’ll say 2033, just a few years after the Eurozone’s Lost Score is finished – hey, I’m an optimist!
By 2033 France and the planet will be in the midst of the most rapid and broadest ecological collapse in hundreds of millions of years. Micron will be a nasty memory, hopefully languishing in prison somewhere along with his Zionazi creators like Bernard-Henry Levy.
This smells of “France-xit”
Obviously, if the French people didn’t want to join EU in 2005 and government did not listen… Then the French people will want a Referendum to leave the EU and all it’s spending and rules and regulations. Macron is totally EU driven.
Interesting times we live in!!!
LOVE and JOY,
the seagull
Gabriel the Seagull
It remains to be seen if we shall see Francexit, and for the following reasons:
France has been a happy hunting ground for the Rothschilds since 1789, when they financed the French “revolution”. Macron is nothing more than a Rothschild’s banker, doing as told. His job is to keep France in the EU, controlled by private bankers.
French history has not been a happy one, as unity is not a French characteristic. In the 16th century you had a religious war, the Catholic fraction winning. The result ? Some 250.000 Protestant Frenchmen emigrated to England, many of them being highly skilled craftsmen. The French manufacturing base was ruined, giving England an open road to introduce the first industrial revolution, which England started doing in 1750. And the French ? While the English were beginning to industrialize, the chief question in France was if the nobility should pay taxes. The Rothschild’s served them a “revolution”.
The Yellow Vests are continuing the tradition of disunity. As Ramin Mazahari points out, they have no clear programme, only uncoordinated demands. Not wise, as this gives Macron breathing space.
Finally, I was expecting protests in France. During the last election, Macron received 66 % of the vote and Le Pen 33 %, ie. Macron won by a margin of 2:1. When was the last time you had such results in any country ? The election was certainly rigged, with millions of votes stolen from Le Pen, who said so publicly.
We shall see how all of this ends. France is not only experiencing economic and financial problems, but also ethnic, due to massive immigration. If you combine these factors, then you could get a very nasty situation indeed. This could lead to chain reactions in other countries, like Holland, Belgium, Sweden, etc, all of whom have immigration problems as well. It would appear that the 21st century will not be a happy one for Western Europe.
Only 16 some % of the electorate voted for Macron, check it out for yourselves. The Yellow Vests all want at least one thing, and that is to establish the RIC, the right to organise referenda at the initiative of citizens. This would create a democratic ‘bubble’ within the totally undemocratic system run in France.
Here a video that explains it with English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN5tdMSXWV8
Enjoy!
Interesting interview.
I must note the loud silence of the activities of the Yellow Vests in the American media… It reminds me of the Occupy Movement… They said the movement had no clear message then as they do now, as if having a single point or a simplistic case is a requisite for a political movement to be taken seriously. That is nonsense, obviously, and it seems the French government is working overtime to find ways to temper the YV’s influence.
People in other countries, including western countries and countries all over the world feel similarly as do the YVs, and given the fact that the nature of that which they are resisting is so broad and complex, it makes me wonder what the future holds for politics in general…
For example, how to the Venezuelan people feel about the French Yellow Vests? And vice versa? And the sympathizers of Occupy and even other protests around the world, and in general the people who are pissed off at the way the world is working (which is a LOT of people globally)?
Color revolutions wouldn’t be possible if there wasn’t some degree of latent frustration in people’s hearts and minds…. this is what is being capitalized on by those entities who harness this frustration to foment color revolutions in the service of the very parties who are ultimately responsible for the people’s animosity to begin with.
We have yet to see how the situations in Venezuela and France resolve, but it feels to me like there is potential for a very different new normal to (accidentally?) emerge as a result, depending on how things unfold in those places.
Liz R. D’lipse
The reason why in the US media you have a loud silence on the Yellow vests is because the US elite controls the media. The Yellow vests in France are anti-elite, and of course the US elite does not wish to portray this fact to the home audience, as people in the US might get the same idea, bearing in mind the unemployment rate and low income groups. We thus have a conspiracy of silence. When news is delicate, pretend it does not exist.
Colour Revolutions do not need massive popular support. They just require concentrations of mobs, all posing for Western cameras,often paid by the USA and other Western powers, plus idiot dupes who buy the ‘Free World’ and ‘democracy’ lies, plus those who intend to be top dogs under the hard Right capitalist regimes that are ALWAYS the outcome of Colour Revolutions. Then, if the targeted state does not disperse the traitors, the ‘Revolution’ culminates in a violent putsch, often accompanied by ‘mysterious sniper’ killings and power is seized by force, as in Georgia, Serbia, Ukraine etc, and as failed in Beijing in 1989.
Vanessa Beeley points out the humanity of the Syrian government, the totalitarianism of the French government and the hypocrisy of French president Macron, who has done nothing to throttle his murderous interior minister but calls for Syria’s president to resign:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/france-gilets-24481980?utm_medium=post_notification_email&utm_source=post_link&utm_campaign=patron_engagement
In some of the recent footage of the protests I have noticed that the usual riot police in their robo-cop gear are absent and instead are replaced by groups in standard issue helmets and shields but wearing ripped jeans, trainers and non-uniform jackets, all with no police markings or logos.
Any clue as to who these people are? Are they military drafted in? They seem to lack the riot-police training as well as the uniform.
The french riot police are spread very thin now. Ordinary polce uniform or plain clothesare being brought in. Note red bands denoting such.
Many hours of observations are that the policing of such large crowds who are not destroying property has become very very frustrating for the riot police – Riot police are an over reaction. An unknown percentage of the wider police force do disagree with Macron. An unknown percentage too will be suffering from austerity. Some will now be reporting in “sick ” while others have been injured …
Finally there are ways to disperse crowds effectively …. That is not happening. No solid roman style wedges being used to split crowds – one effective tool taught in policing and used globally in riot situations. Incidently these folk are protesting and not rioting. Response by police has been completely wrong. and my over view is that the general policing and approach is very disorganised .
Hence frustrations by police who are lashing out at the demonstrators….
” Any clue as to who these people are? Are they military drafted in? They seem to lack the riot-police training as well as the uniform ”
They are actually policemen, from ” brigades anti-criminalité ” sometimes refered to as BAC, or baqueux. Not very cool people… They have ” sales gueules ” and are here to worsen the situation IMO.
Yes, I dislike them.
Police provocateurs, a very old tactic.
https://francais.rt.com/france/58841-gendarme-gilets-jaunes-montpellier-toutes-nos-familles-elles-sont-avec-vous
Scène étonnante à Montpellier lors de l’acte XII : un gendarme a été filmé en pleine discussion avec des manifestants. Le militaire explique aux Gilets jaunes que les gendarmes n’ont rien contre eux, mais qu’ils doivent obéir aux ordres.
Amazing scene in Montpellier during act XII: a policeman was filmed in full discussion with protesters. The soldier explains to the Yellow Vests that the gendarmes have nothing against them, but that they must obey orders.
Mutiny is always one act away…
Yellow Vests in my non-expert opinion are a mostly a British led Anti-EU color revolution. USA and English media like Fox and Daily Mail have praised the yellow vests, like they praised Maidan neo nazis, which should sound an alarm. British far right leaders Farage, Banks Johnson and Mogg have said they aim not only for UK to leave the EU, but to destroy the EU. That is why they are in favor of no deal with EU, they want to make an economic suicide bomb. UK is bound by international law to pay 39 billion dollars to EU, yet they will not, they will keep it just like the venezuelan gold. German and French people mostly support an EU army because it means that NATO will not be able to start a suicidal war against Russia. NATO is a product of the British and American Empire, we do not want our children dying for this. Yellow Vests should realise that the poverty and alianation in EU is due to the adoption of the Anglo banks debt slavery system, not the EU. Attacking the EU is just what the British (brutish) Empire wants to distract from their coming collapse after Brexit. Macron pushed a hard line against the British at the EU negotiations and did not give in to their blackmail- so he had to go, like Mubarak, Ghadaffi, Yanukovych, Maduro.. Anyone who stands up to the Brutish Empire must be removed. The EU-Russia relations are the future in energy and trade. Russia would welcome a EU army if it meant the end of NATO.
Macron announced an EU army and straight away English will not like that, if you undertand history then you will see Western European history is mostly England and France fighting each other for a thousand years, but the english are nearly always on the side of the retrograde and the elitist. USA in the early years supported the EU, yet quickly turned against it once the Euro currency started threatening the PetroDollar as a reserve currency. It is necessary to look at reality rather than just repeat tired Anglo Saxon anti EU slogans without thinking.
USA neocons fully support and fund the British against France. They want Macron to end up like Yanukvych.. who also treat to negotiate and appease color revolution rioters, and ended up lucky to escape with his life. Remember how Putin and Macron and the Croatian female leader were friendly and laughing at the world cup final, the Anglo Saxons will not tolerate this. So they had to remove Macron. Please to not put on a yellow vest and become a soldier of the Anglo Saxon.
Interesting comments ….
but may I suggest that the power now lies above governments and their mouth pieces you have mentioned.
And this trend now visible to most has been this way since 1990 s. ( A concerted effort began around 1913 to globalise finance but the aim was a one world government appointed not elected who would be the controllers of finance: thus a small cabal of elites will “manage” world finance – theory)
Many essays this decade cite international finance as a major challenge. (Prof M Hudson. Ellen Brown et al) which in turn have held governments to ransom. There is no social policy in finance…. statement. This is the practice and it has been clumsy as well as successful in many areas. However cracks are appearing.
Austerity is Structural Adjustment Polices (SAP). Used by WB and IMF during 1970s forward to force african countries to repay debt at very high interest rates from loans lent/imposed into their fledgling economies.
Cant pay ? then reduce expenditure or close public facilities Health welfare education plus = SAP or austerity today ….. The elites know this creates poverty amongst low income…. but they dont care…. They just dont give a shit … period …..
The political world of behind the scenes chosen who are then put out there to be elected today are openly prostituting themselves to the parasites (The elites) who run the world of international finance – (Ian R Crane)
Thus austerity imposed on the developed world …. Its about wealth, life style and the attitude of ….”one should only worry about immediate families”…. screw the rest.
Empire s feed off international finance …. There are millions of interlocked corporations transnationals and multinationals in this game at the top (SWiss study 2015) Most striving to be top dog ….. thus they will destroy the other to gain an advantage… or be destroyed in the the act. No loyalties or honour – just ruthlessness attitudes towards the other. A giant global chess game … of many players.
Focus there and research the problem. The central Bank system linked into Bank of International Settlements plus their ideology called neo liberalisim
Empires are guided and manipulated from within this bundle.
I live in France. The gilets jaunes are a 100% French movement. No influence from Russia, as Macron claims, and certainly no influence from Britain or US as you, Realist, ludicrously claim. You clearly live in la-la land.
The reality is that the British people voted in a referendum in the 1970’s to join a Common Market and only a common market. That has insidiously morphed over the years, without further consultation, into an unelected behemoth that seeks political, economic and military (ie total) control over its ‘members’ who definitely are not seen or treated as equal partners in the enterprise. This is now becoming obvious to all but the impervious elite who profit greatly from this set-up.
My yellow vest is ready and waiting.
Ramin Mazaheri, you say austerity has created high employment in your very first sentence. Are you kidding me? Austerity has crushed employment growth AND wages and that is one of the drivers behind the wave of revolution gripping France.
I think (or better, I´m quite sure) that this was a ´slip of the keyboard´ of Ramin…
The story goes, that shortly after his inauguration Barack Obama met with a couple of leaders of the financial world. He apparantly has said to them ‘you must realize, that we are the only ones between you and the pitchforks’.
It ain’t pitchfork time yet, but the tendency is there. I don’t believe some ‘orchestration’ in this. Not even from ‘Ze Russians’ as Macron suggested (of course boy, now come to Mummy).
The yellow vest movement is a result of years of mismanagement (don’t exclude Hollande in this), and structural features of the French Society that they cannot afford anymore. Good luck to *anyone* who wants to change that. Retirement Age, the large influence of unions…
It is interesting to watch the MSM coverage. It is ignored, all resources are put on the poor People of Venezuela.
(‘But mr. President, than how about the many thousands of people in Yemen, dying from starvation and diseases, with their harbours blocked from humanitarian aid by the Saudis?’ ‘Well, that cannot be compared, and we have to be careful with our precious trade relations. Next question, please’)
The *median* income in France is something of 1700 Euros a month. That ain’t much. The minimum is around 1100 Euros a month. Raising the petrol prices to around 1.85 Euros a liter, in order to save the icebears, in a country where many people are dependant on a car, was the last drop that put the bucket to overflowing.
To get an idea what motivates them, a short, cheerful but also sarcastic song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBiHJxGxz1g
What will happen now? Macron threw ‘les mechants’ a bone, with raising the minimum income with some 100 Euros a month.
First, Macron has no money to pay this, and will try with some tricks to drop this on the Germans. It is questionable whether they will fall for this. Thereby, if I’m not mistaken, French families on the minimum can get municipal assistance for their costs. It’s called CAF (Caisse Assistance Familiaire). This is income dependant, so if you’re income rises a littlebit, what happens to CAF? …. right. The net result is zilch. I have such a feeling that French people can calculate.
So, what will this lead to? French people have a tendency to stubbordness. Macron tried a fake counter-demo of ‘red scarfs’ (come on, do people believe this? apparently Macron called the ‘crowds on demand’ company: https://crowdsondemand.com/ ).
I also sense a tendency of the hard line from Macron. Now, there might be the tipping point. The amount of solidarity in France is large, and at a certain moment the French Police might aside them.
It was Jose Ortega y Gasset, who stated in ‘the revolt of the masses’, that there is always a moment where governmental forces will stop at using violence at their own people. Let’s hope he is right again, or will Macron use the Maidan trick to hire foreign snipers?
Cheers, Rob
A big thanks to Ramin and Sputnik for creating this interview. RT is also covering it.
But just a few observations if I may.
Regaring the riot police –
There are numerous testimonials by yellow vests that riot police are being drafted in from other EU countries, this confirmed by their speaking in a different language and having to no ID on their clothing. German yellow vests have appeared in small numbers in Stuttgart.
Ramin’s observations are accurate but I think he makes an error in calling Macron and his policies “right wing”
The policies of war on the populations is Zionist/globalist/corporatist/ fascist and the reason why calling it “right wing” is a mistake is because it divides us.
Without getting involved in polemics one can observe that it is leftwing leadership, treachery and betrayal of their people that has led us to this situation and aren’t the left all “one world government” devotees and opposed to national and cultural identity? Big mistake.
This left/right card trick is a trap which is not to say that some “left wing” ideas are not useful eg collective action and opposition to the privatisation of everything and some “right wing” ideas also useful eg opposition to unlimited immigration and opposition to state abuse of power.
For example, Corbyn in the UK is a total fake. He can be seen in videos in 2009 when he had no chance of having to put his money where his mouth is, railing against the undemocratic EU calling it “Frankenstein”
Today all he wants is to get into power to wreck Brexit. What changed Jeremy?
As the possibility of assuming power gets closer so Jeremy becomes whatever it takes , whatever suits the oligarchy.
But he is a good example of how the system provides fake opposition to lure people, especially the young, from the frying pan of Theresa May into the fire of Labour neo conservatism.
It hasn’t failed before but it is failing now.
It is important not to get bogged down in the game of left/right which the Zionists are happy to see people futilely engage in as they vote this year for Tweedledum and next year for Tweedldee.
Wasn’t the Bolshevik coup both communist and run by Zionists?
How many Russians were killed in that “left wing” abomination?
It is important not to be divided by identity politics but to stress – as the yellow vests do – the common enemy all the people of France face. This is their strength.
What I see happening in France and other European countries is a realisation that the whole damned set up is rotten and thoroughly corrupt and needs to be swept away and replaced by “transparent democracy”
Let the good sense of the normal people prevail and proper democracy take place and the French – as everywhere else – will work out what is best for their country (And jail the bankers).
A brilliant quote from a French woman sums it up. She said “I am sick of the government eating away at our lives and we are sick and tired of having to beg to be listened to.”
She itemised her monthly income which certainly wasn’t 1700 Euros and listed how every month more is being taken in taxes and higher prices.
How much wealth from France has been spirited away to hidden locations?
Whilst Merkel and Macron continue to add new levels of power at the top of their fascist superstate, the whole thing is crumbling and falling apart at street level. Currently they seek to unify under single command the entire EU military which could take countries into wars without even their puppet parliaments getting a vote.
The unelected EU Commission is every bit as imperialist and war minded as the US – no surprise as it is run by the same people.
Ramin may not have noticed but now, midway though a general strike the big French trade unions have joined in.
One can only hope that the other peoples of Europe will join in too..
There is no going back. French people cannot simply go home because the war to crush them never stops and we can be sure that if the yellow vests are “defeated” the repression will be severe.
The unravelling has begun. Pain lies ahead but the people must prevail or it will be curtains for all of us.
Tomsk, I agree with almost all of your comment but would like to point out that Corbyn has been a staunch and vocal opposer of the EU for the 30+ years that he has been an MP. He modified his stance when he was elected leader of the very divided Labour Party, since, as a believer in democracy not tyranny, he then had to represent all the views of the Party, not just his own personal view. (The Blairites or centrists are likely to split off shortly, egged on by Tony himself, fresh from Davos, and form their own new party.)
There are plenty of neo-liberals still in the Labour Party, left-overs from Blair’s New Labour, but Corbyn, for all his faults, isn’t one of them.
“It is important not to get bogged down in the game of left/right which the Zionists are happy to see people futilely engage in as they vote this year for Tweedledum and next year for Tweedldee.”
I highlighted this part of your nice post. It may be a topic in itself.
To support your point, in Germany they have a site to help people to vote. It’s called Wahl-O-Mat. You get a lot of questions about actual issues, multiple-choice, and afterwards you get an advise which party suits you most. I guess in many countries they have something similar.
Now, what if you would enter the ideas of Hitler’s NSDAP of 1933 into the Wahl-O-Mat of today? Where would you end up?
I’m smiling because I know the answer. You would end up somewhere between die Grűnen (Green Party) and die Linke (Left Party).
Well, that’s not exactly *extreme right*, isn’t it? But I do know that the benefits always end up in the same pockets. They are neither ‘left’ or ‘right’. The owners have pockets on each side. Well filled, but *never* enough.
Cheers, Rob
Seven-year Benoîte Abedoux of France is calling for the bombing and regime change of France in response to Animal Macron’s political repression of his own people!
https://twitter.com/BenoiteAbedoux
Also, the noted Citizen Journalist group Bellingdog (which is not affiliated with the Atlantic Council) is providing unique insights into the current French Civil War from Leicestershire, England!
https://twitter.com/Bellingdawg
“The Yellow Vests have no clear programme; there are literally dozens and dozens of demands which are associated with them”.
As a french having thoroughly followed this movement, I must say this is wrong. What the yellow vest want was summed up the other day on TV by one of the movement speaker (who happened to lose one eye due to police violence), Jerome Rodrigues:
– fill the fridge of poor people
– enact more democracy (popular referendum)
– reduce salaries for elected representatives
– give some excuses to the french people for the repression
Hi ababush,
I interviewed the honourable Mr. Rodriguez Tuesday at the “first-ever Vesters + Unions” march. His first quote is excellent, but rather tragic. He’s an amazing person, obviously, and if I had a vote I’d give it to him.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/02/06/587852/Yellow-Vest-Unions-march-strike-Paris
I think the YV’s program is more than just that, but if Macron honestly did all 4 of those things he’d be re-elected overwhelmingly. He’s not going to do any of them, tho.
Even if he did all 4 it really wouldn’t be enough to solve the problems of the Vesters, or of France, or of the Eurozone. However, as commenter Liz R. D’lipse noted: “as if having a single point or a simplistic case is a requisite for a political movement to be taken seriously. That is nonsense,” – there are a LOT of things to remedy.
“Even if he did all 4 it really wouldn’t be enough to solve the problems of the Vesters, or of France,”
You are totally correct Ramin Quite apart from the yellow vests, even before they started protesting, France was coming apart.
It’s banks eg BNP Paribas are insolvent, the country has 6 million unemployed and the problems have been massively aggravated by huge immigration leading to the government abandoning any pretense of being able to effect law and order in the suburbs where even the police, whose suicide rates are going through the roof, are frightened to go for fear of attacks from drug gangs.
Imagine – huge areas on the outskirts of the cities where the police are too scared to patrol and law and order have broken down completely.
Needless to say the super rich like Macron and the bankers are feeling no pain at all. They inhabit a protected bubble and to them that is all that matters.
The yellow vests are a popular response to this globalist induced chaos, not the cause of it and perhaps if the riot police, instead of shooting, maiming and killing yellow vests, joined them, a solution could be found more quickly.
The msm aren’t covering the yellow vests protests and they are not covering this either –
https://www.dw.com/en/why-french-police-officers-keep-committing-suicide/a-46771680
”It’s really very ironic that Macron, I’m sure he’s going to refuse hold new elections, because that is exactly what he ordered Venezuela to do. Macron and other EU leaders, they gave Venezuelan leader Nicholas Maduro just eight days to hold new elections or they will recognize someone else /…/ ”
Right.
Ergo: The Venezuelans should kindly ask the adorable Euro-trash whom a non-Exceptional, dispensable people should vote for. Macron would certainly not mind being appointed ”democratically elected President” of Venezuela.
You’re_a_peon Union indeed.
Thank you Ramin for bringing a lot of clarity for me to understand the situation in France right now with the Yellow Vest movement which, as you said, had so many wishes but seem finally to become more focused on a few areas such as pushing for more direct democratic practices via referendums.
I have always considered the French people to be much more politically engaged than most other Westerners, and as you speak from on the ground, I get a sense of the growing fury of a people who see their rights and feelings slipping rapidly away like water through a cupped hand and feeling utterly disrespected.
In Ghassan’s and my numerous visits to France in the last decade, we noticed, at least in many rural areas we visited, a rapid decline economically and also in morale and even closures of post offices and other services, leaving whole towns quite isolated and desolate.
At first I wondered if the Yellow Vest movement would be quickly hijacked and maybe fall into the hands of those who resent the cultural diversity in France but I noticed that a wide range of French people seem to be involved, correct me if I am wrong. I wonder how it will progress without commonly accepted leaders or has leadership emerged?
I’ll certainly keep an eye out for any of your future writing on this as I like the way you have explained things.
Everyone knows that referendums in Europe are meaningless and always ignored. The time for referendums and peaceful marches are long over.