Sydney Ewing- Police Fire Tear Gas and Water Cannons into Crowds of French Protesters

The police fired water cannons and tear gas at yellow vest protesters in Paris. The yellow vest movement has grown rapidly and has been accompanied by violent scenes (for example, on Saturday there was an explosion at a bakery that killed three people). The protest began in response to a gas tax increase, but now it has become a movement against President Emmanuel Macron's government. Last month, Macron pledged to increase minimum wage and abolish new pension taxes in an attempt to appease the yellow vests. Last weekend about 26,000 protesters marched, and today 32,000 protesters marched across all of France.

I wrote about this topic a month ago when Macron made an effort to appease the protesters. The situation has since escalated. I suppose it was “too little to late” for Macron. The most concerning thing currently, besides the impending possibility of another French Revolution, is the violence. The bomb that went off killed two firemen, killed a spanish citizen and injured 50 people. Many tourist sites have been closed in the expectation of violence. Central Paris has been in lockdown out of fear of violence. Government buildings are surrounded by police barricades. At least ten deaths have been linked to traffic accidents because of blockades. The looting and burning of cars has become commonplace. I would probably say that this reminds me of a modern Shay's Rebellion, if Shay’s Rebellion hadn't been taken down. Maybe it's more similar to Bacon's Rebellion. Either way, this chaos of France is vivid parallelism to A Tale of Two Cities (I recommend the read). I am curious to find out how long it will take Macron to resign, hit this with an iron fist or be assassinated. Scary times in France.

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