Comment allez-vous? (Things happening in France)

[tvstrip]

I don't think we have a general thread for France (& French Politics), and seeing how the UK has one, I thought this would be nice.

@Johan how are things over there?
The retirement age protests seem to be pretty dicey. Hope you're keeping safe.

 

[Harpsman]

I've total admiration for the French Trade Unions.

 

[Johan]

Thanks guys. Yeah, the protest are getting crazy.But don't worry, I'm all good, the protest are in the large cities, I'm not in a big city, I'm in a small town, 15 miles west from Paris.

Macron wants to push back the retirement age from 62 to 64. But about 70% of people don't want that. There's an article in the consitution that allows the government to pass a law without the parliament voting on it but if the government uses it, it sets a vote on weether the government can stay or not. Knowing that this retirement bill wouldn't pass on on normal vote, Macron used that article, knowing that the different opposing parties would refuse to vote together so the government would stay. That's exactly what happened.
But now, instead of blaming the opposition parties for failing to work together, they're blaming Macron for using that article, they say it was anti-democratic.

Macron thought the protest would calm down now that the bill has been passed, that the people would get tired of having no public transportation, garbage in the streets, no oil at the filling stations, etc. But that's no what's happening, despite all that, people are still routing for the protestors
Now Macron doesn't to cancel his bill 'cause that would make him look weak so he's trying to convince the union to negociate about how to modify it but the unions say "non, first you cancel that bill, then we'll talk..."

A week ago Macron was on TV to try to calm things down but al he said was basically "the bill's passed, I won't cancel it, no go back hom, go back to wor It's over, move along" which, obviously, made people even more angry.

 

[tvstrip]

Thanks guys. Yeah, the protest are getting crazy.But don't worry, I'm all good, the protest are in the large cities, I'm not in a big city, I'm in a small town, 15 miles west from Paris.

Macron wants to push back the retirement age from 62 to 64. But about 70% of people don't want that. There's an article in the consitution that allows the government to pass a law without the parliament voting on it but if the government uses it, it sets a vote on weether the government can stay or not. Knowing that this retirement bill wouldn't pass on on normal vote, Macron used that article, knowing that the different opposing parties would refuse to vote together so the government would stay. That's exactly what happened.
But now, instead of blaming the opposition parties for failing to work together, they're blaming Macron for using that article, they say it was anti-democratic.

Macron thought the protest would calm down now that the bill has been passed, that the people would get tired of having no public transportation, garbage in the streets, no oil at the filling stations, etc. But that's no what's happening, despite all that, people are still routing for the protestors
Now Macron doesn't to cancel his bill 'cause that would make him look weak so he's trying to convince the union to negociate about how to modify it but the unions say "non, first you cancel that bill, then we'll talk..."

A week ago Macron was on TV to try to calm things down but al he said was basically "the bill's passed, I won't cancel it, no go back hom, go back to wor It's over, move along" which, obviously, made people even more angry.

Was there any realistic plan to avoid raising the age (other than raising taxes)? It does look like the current pension plan is unsustainable without something drastically changing.

 

[Harpsman]

The Govt could try and get the huge amount of tax that is being dodged instead of taking the easy/lazy option of hiking up pension age.

 

[tvstrip]

I have to ask - is this true? Are people just going about daily life while the protest fires are blazing?

 

[Johan]

During the early protests when the unions were in control and the protest were peaceful, yes. These protest happen during the whole afternoon and half of them happen on Saturday, businesses aren't gonna be closed every 2 sunday afternoons. Also, these protest consists of tens of thousands of people going from Point A to Point B about 2-3 miles away and, when they turn into riots, it happens at the end, businesses and customers at the start and along the streets don't have much to fear

Also, this picture was taken in Bordeaux. Protest outside from Paris are more peaceful, they rarely turn into riots. And Bordeaux is a quite peaceful city.

 

[tvstrip]

Wow, violent protests are becoming synonymous with France like wine and baguettes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Nahel_Merzouk

Obviously there's no condoning of excessive force by police, but I honestly can't feel sorry for the punk. He had a history of resisting arrest, going back to just the previous weekend. On the day of the shooting, he was evading police, almost killing a pedestrian as well as putting multiple drivers at risk. He was shot after he gunned it while stopped by traffic and police were at his window.

The police lying contrary to the video evidence is of course inexcusable, and really hurts the case. It may have been better to let this punk actually kill and injure some people, because it seems that these days that's what it takes for a police shooting to be justified.

 

[tvstrip]

@VillellaMcMeans I know you have some thoughts on this one....

 

[Concrete Cock]

How French are French Fries and what fancy Frenchy ways can you get fries in The France? I sure like fries and so much I have even been known to put mustard on them occasionally.