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TOPIC: yellow vests

In The News

Xi & Putin’s New World Order, More “Partygate” Evidence, Bali New Year

👋 Sziasztok!*

Welcome to Wednesday, where Xi Jinping leaves Moscow after pledging to “shape a new world order” with Vladimir Putin, Boris Johnson’s “Partygate” hearing opens and Google rolls out its Bard chatbot. Meanwhile, Anna Akage surveys experts on the likelihood that the Russian president is using a doppelgänger for public appearances.

[*Hungarian]

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French Protests: Risk Of A "Yellow Vest" Rerun

The pushing through of a bill to raise the retirement age in France has caused widespread, sometimes violent, protests. The government is worried the movement will spread, as unions warn the protests are just beginning.

-Analysis-

PARIS — The peaceful ambiance last month of anti-government demonstrations in France has given way to something else. But what exactly is the new nature of the protests? Are we witnessing the emergence of a social movement destined to last, and paralyze the country like the so-called "yellow vests" five years ago?

Since last Thursday, when the French government passed a bill on pension reform increasing the retirement age from 62 to 64, President Emmanuel Macron and his government have been facing a new form of protest. It is more radical, sometimes more violent, but also more diffuse and especially uncontrollable.

In Paris, after two evenings of "wild" demonstrations, people were forbidden from gathering and protesting at Place de la Concorde, one of the city's major public squares, on Saturday evening and the area was placed under heavy police surveillance. The problem was only averted because another demonstration took place in another square, Place d'Italie, leading to clashes with the police.

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French Yellow Vests: How Social Unrest Begets Anti-Semitism

PARIS — European history has shown, time and again, that anti-Semitism is an indicator that the social state has become unstable. It's therefore not shocking that it's developing today in France, linked in particular to fringes of the anti-establishment yellow vest movement. The paths laid between a society in crisis and anti-Semitism have been laid in the collective subconscious. Jews are often perceived as belonging to the elite, notably the intellectual and financial elite; and thus when a movement attacks the elite, it quickly moves to attacking Jews.

An additional noteworthy factor: There are very real extremist infiltrations into the Yellow Vests ("Gilets Jaunes') movement. And these extremists, despite their ideological differences, have two points in common that have come up throughout history: the rejection of "the system"— whatever that's supposed to mean — and that of the Jews. Hence improbable alliances between socialists and nationalists of which Nazism was the worst example.

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From Lenin To Macron, The Limits Of Pedagogy In Politics

It's tempting to imagine that if our leaders were better teachers, consensus would ensue. But what works in the classroom doesn't necessarily apply to politics.

-OpEd-

PARIS — It's a sentence that any observer of French politics has heard: We need "pedagogy." The same instruction is repeated president after president, from minister to minister. It seems obvious, at first glance. To clearly spell out policy goals, to explain why and how the measures are taken, and to insist on their benefits and relevance is really the least politicians can do.

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Sources
Jacques Follorou

'Yellow Vests' And The Limits Of Democratic Force

-Analysis-

PARIS — So what has become of this France, champion of maintaining order, exporter of its savoir-faire and its materials to other democracies — and to totalitarian regimes anxious to quell burgeoning opposition movements? Just a few years ago, a spokesman for French tear gas manufacturer Alsetex, which supplies to the French police, told Le Monde, "our tear gas formula is the purest in the world, which allows people to be taken before the judge in a good state; our grenade is the marque of ‘French democracy.""

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Sources
Dominique Moisi

Europe's Annus Not-So-Horribilis: Why 2018 Wasn't All Bad

Even as it contends still with Brexit and the rise of right-wing populists, the European Union did enjoy some 'almost good news' this year.

-Analysis-

PARIS — It's fair to say that 2018 was a difficult year for the cause of democracy in the world. And yet, as the old saying goes, "While there's life, there's hope." The words are particularly appropriate for the European Union, where despite some obvious setbacks, there are still reasons — however dim they may seem to be — for optimism.

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Sources

France: From Rousseau To Yellow Vests To The Popular Referendum

-OpEd-

PARIS — In the sometimes cacophonous concert of demands from France's "yellow vests' protest movement, one measure keeps coming back: the Référendum d'initiative citoyenne (RIC), or "Citizens' Initiative Referendum," which allows individual citizens to submit a legislative text to a popular vote, and to thus express their opinions in the ballot box rather than just via their Facebook accounts.

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LA TERCERA
Benjamin Witte

'Pico Pa' Arc de Triomphe! Defacing Other Countries' Monuments

The outpouring of rage and resentment that erupted in last weekend's "yellow vest" demonstrations in Paris made headlines around the world. In far-flung Chile, which has had plenty of its own experience in recent years with large-scale, anti-government demonstrations, there was keen interest in the French protesters taking umbrage with leaders who seem out of touch with the everyday struggles of working families.

But those parallels aside, there was something else about the events in Paris that raised eyebrows in the long-and-skinny South American country: graffiti.

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Sources
Edouard Tétreau

The Yellow Vests, A Wake-Up Call For France And The World

The 'yellow vest' uprising is about more than Macron's ill-conceived fuel tax. It's symptomatic of a system-wide failure that must be fixed before it's too late.

-OpEd-

PARIS — The crisis that is underway in France — and in most other developed countries, for that matter — is serious. But, in equal measure, it also offers hope and brings with it an opportunity for reinvention.

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Geopolitics
Jérôme Fenoglio

Macron, What Now? France Faces Worst Social Unrest Since 1968

-Editorial-

PARIS — The violence committed in Paris and other French cities on Saturday is, in every meaning of the word, unspeakable. The destruction, pillaging and assault against those charged with maintaining order must be condemned without reserve, because they are without excuse. There are no words to give meaning or direction to the flood of rage and hatred that spilled for hours across the posh neighborhoods of the capital.

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