French officials to rush through concessions for ‘yellow vests’
PARIS: French officials vowed Monday to quickly push tax cuts and a rise in the minimum wage through parliament in a bid to end the anti-government “yellow vest” protests, amid signs the movement is losing steam ahead of the yearend holidays.
At the same time police said they would start removing barricades at roundabouts and on motorways after a month of demonstrations which have at times spiralled into violence while taking a toll on the economy.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said eight people had been killed since the start of the protests in November, and scores of others injured.
“Is there any other social conflict in the past 30 years that has killed so many? I say it clearly: That’s enough,” Castaner said while visiting officers outside Paris on Monday.
“Roundabouts have been evacuated, and we’re going to continue to do so,” Castaner said, adding that “we can’t continue to paralyse the French economy”.
Around 66,000 people took part in protests nationwide on Saturday, roughly half the numbers the week before, with far less violence and vandalism in Paris and other cities than in previous demonstrations.
President Emmanuel Macron announced a series of concessions last week, including a 100-euro increase for five million minimum wage earners, the removal of a planned tax increase for a majority of pensioners, and tax-free overtime pay for all workers.
The concessions will be discussed at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday before being brought to the National Assembly and Senate for votes before Christmas.
“We have made mistakes. We haven’t listened enough to the French people,” Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told the financial newspaper Les Echos in an interview published Monday.
Philippe acknowledged that the concessions, worth some 10 billion euros (US$11.3 billion), would mean France’s deficit would breach the EU-mandated three precent limit of GDP next year.
“But we are careful with government spending, and we are taking a series of measures touching on businesses and spending worth some four billion euros. That should allow us to hold the deficit at about 3.2 per cent for 2019,” instead of the original 2.8 per cent goal, he said.
A planned reduction in the corporate income tax rate, for example, will be restricted next year to companies with a turnover of less than 250 million euros.
And Philippe said he was ready to consider Swiss-style citizen referendums, a key demand of many protesters from rural and small-town France who say officials in Paris fail to take their needs into account.
“I don’t see how we could be against the principle of it. Referendums can be a good tool in a democracy, but not on every issue or under whatever circumstances,” he said.
But many of the yellow vests, so-called for the high-visibility jackets drivers are required to keep in their cars, have vowed to press on with the protests.
Two more motorway toll stations were set on fire overnight in southern France, near Beziers and Manosque, officials said.