French President
Emmanuel Macron recently made international headlines with talk of building a
European Army. But that show of European unity is undermined by a clearly divided
France, highlighted by
protests over taxes that turned violent over the weekend.
In
Paris, about 8,000 gathered wearing yellow vests. The high visibility jackets, required for drivers to carry, have become a symbol of the movement protesting increased taxes on gas and broader economic anger. In Paris, protesters lit barricades in the streets and police fired tear gas into crowds. Nearly 100,000 took to the streets across the country.
This weekend’s demonstrations come on the heels of even larger mobilizations last weekend that saw about a quarter of a million people venting their anger against economic conditions that make it hard for working people to make ends meet.
With signs urging Macron to step down and some demanding that parliament be dissolved, those marching offer a formidable rebuke of current leadership and policies.
Macron has increasingly emerged as a champion of Europe even as German Chancellor Angela Merkel prepares to make her exit. But as a Brexit deal teeters and Italy faces rebuke over its blatantly populist budget, protests in France offer yet another test of his centrist government to meet the needs of an increasingly divided France.
The divisions within France between the metropolitan centers and the suburban and rural swaths of the country, and the anger over liberal policies seen as ignoring lower-income French (like higher taxes on carbon emissions) are not unique to France. Indeed, Macon’s centrist approach is falling out of favor across the continent. In upcoming
European Union elections, centrist parties on the Left and the Right might do so poorly as to lose their combined majority in Brussels.
For France and more broadly Europe, the carefully constructed middle ground that supported Merkel and swept Macon to victory over far-right challenger Marine Le Pen looks fragile.
To avoid the populist pull already eating away democracy in Hungary, European leaders including Macron must learn from the protesters. Macron should have acted sooner to soften the blow of his policies -- at this point, his belated proposals to provide additional tax rebates and other relief have been dismissed by protesters. But Europe's leaders are going to have to think more carefully about how they proceed.