Just read interesting interview about the situation (in Spanish and probably paywalled).
TLDR: Macron in a Lame duck president now. Next presidential elections are in May and he can’t run again. He doesn’t have the time or mandate to start major reforms now.
France has the biggest debt in EU. They have the 3rd highest debt-to-GDP after Italy and Greece. They have worse debt-to-GDP ratio than Spain now.
While people are destroying private and public property causing billions in damages there is simply no one who will listen to them. There’s no money in the budget to simply increase funding for education or lower gasoline prices, the debt is already overwhelming them. No one knows who will win the next elections so the current government has little interest in starting major reforms now. All they can do is to send police to the streets and try to control the situation (which they are failing to do, clearly).
The protests have very little chance to achieve anything. Macron will be out in May so how can he even promise anything to the protesters? The protests are mostly pointless. They will most likely just polarize the vote before elections pushing people to support the extremes.
I hope you can well imagine how Le Pen, Trump and Putin are opening champagne bottles about these riots. These rioters couldn’t shoot better in their own knees and causing a critical situation for the entire EU and for themselves - it increases economical instability, because potential investors will step back, rendering any solution more difficult, and it increases the chance that Le Pen will win the next election - a loss for Ukraine, a loss of freedom, an increase of imbalance and instability for the entire EU.
Sorry, but everybody supporting these riots - protests are something different - is IMHO an enemy of the EU, a supporter of the three above mentioned people and their agenda.
The money is there but you can’t divert it without changing the tax system and passing a new budget. Those are the major reforms I mentioned that lame duck president will not do. Without them they would just be adding to their massive debt.
It’s funny how they never have a problem pushing things forward in one direction. Maybe we should stop coming up with excuses for why they can’t do it in the other.
Yes, politicians often use lame duck period to pass unpopular laws, they don’t have to worry about winning elections anymore. It’s completely different than changing the entire system. They have 0 interest in doing it and other parties have 0 interest in helping them do it.
both of those changes have a big political cost. but if Macron can’t run for presidency anymore, he is in the best position to make those decisions, so that the next party doesn’t have to bear the political costs
That’s some fantasy politics you’re playing there. First, big reforms like that are not done in a matter of months, specially in the middle of an election campaign. Second, Macron is not going to make reforms the left wants, why would he? He could look for some compromise but why would other parties help him do any reforms now if they are so close from taking over and doing the reforms they actually want to see? Third, Macron’s party has zero interest in helping the next government with anything. Macron created the system he wanted to have, why would he help his rivals dismantle it now?
Just read interesting interview about the situation (in Spanish and probably paywalled).
TLDR: Macron in a Lame duck president now. Next presidential elections are in May and he can’t run again. He doesn’t have the time or mandate to start major reforms now.
France has the biggest debt in EU. They have the 3rd highest debt-to-GDP after Italy and Greece. They have worse debt-to-GDP ratio than Spain now.
While people are destroying private and public property causing billions in damages there is simply no one who will listen to them. There’s no money in the budget to simply increase funding for education or lower gasoline prices, the debt is already overwhelming them. No one knows who will win the next elections so the current government has little interest in starting major reforms now. All they can do is to send police to the streets and try to control the situation (which they are failing to do, clearly).
The protests have very little chance to achieve anything. Macron will be out in May so how can he even promise anything to the protesters? The protests are mostly pointless. They will most likely just polarize the vote before elections pushing people to support the extremes.
I hope you can well imagine how Le Pen, Trump and Putin are opening champagne bottles about these riots. These rioters couldn’t shoot better in their own knees and causing a critical situation for the entire EU and for themselves - it increases economical instability, because potential investors will step back, rendering any solution more difficult, and it increases the chance that Le Pen will win the next election - a loss for Ukraine, a loss of freedom, an increase of imbalance and instability for the entire EU.
Sorry, but everybody supporting these riots - protests are something different - is IMHO an enemy of the EU, a supporter of the three above mentioned people and their agenda.
The money is there, it just goes into the few already deepest pockets in the world.
I knew someone will say this…
The money is there but you can’t divert it without changing the tax system and passing a new budget. Those are the major reforms I mentioned that lame duck president will not do. Without them they would just be adding to their massive debt.
They’ve just passed an amendment allowing tax-free gifts of up to €100,000 to one’s children. It’s a new handout for the rich, paid for by taxpayers, voted just the day before these protests.
It’s funny how they never have a problem pushing things forward in one direction. Maybe we should stop coming up with excuses for why they can’t do it in the other.
Yes, politicians often use lame duck period to pass unpopular laws, they don’t have to worry about winning elections anymore. It’s completely different than changing the entire system. They have 0 interest in doing it and other parties have 0 interest in helping them do it.
both of those changes have a big political cost. but if Macron can’t run for presidency anymore, he is in the best position to make those decisions, so that the next party doesn’t have to bear the political costs
That’s some fantasy politics you’re playing there. First, big reforms like that are not done in a matter of months, specially in the middle of an election campaign. Second, Macron is not going to make reforms the left wants, why would he? He could look for some compromise but why would other parties help him do any reforms now if they are so close from taking over and doing the reforms they actually want to see? Third, Macron’s party has zero interest in helping the next government with anything. Macron created the system he wanted to have, why would he help his rivals dismantle it now?
I agree that there is a larger problem at play here.
It seems to me that the comment you’re replying to said that.
Funnily enough, France is also the country that spends the most money in the world in social services. So what do the rioters want, end to that?