congo. the maternity town the slums go in and you may never get out some sort of. my teenage gang rules here. go to one of. the let me my. name you will be. told. you. might see a murderer. but now it's looking for the yeah. me and melanie when. i'm looking a little. hello

and welcome to cross talk where all things are considered i'm peter lavelle what does the rise of the yellow vest movement in france tell us about the state of the neo liberal order in europe are the protests in france the largest since nine hundred sixty eight just about a hike in fuel prices and is emmanuelle the right person to be president to address the problems so many have in france. cross talking france's yellow vests i'm joined by. my guest bruno west scheme paris

he's a political analyst and a professor of national institute of languages and eastern civilizations in brussels we have luke he's an independent journalist and in luxembourg we cross louis chevelle he is a professor at the university of luxembourg all right gentlemen cross talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate bruno let me go to you first in address the first question i asked in my introduction we all know anyone's watching this program is the catalyst for these protests and this protest movement was a increase in fuel prices but i think the larger prick picture is that this is a protest against neoliberal policies that the working people not just in france but all across europe of had to dealt with i mean this is the politics of austerity under the cover of dealing with global warming warming the people are not so stupid to fall for that go ahead bruno yes of course. miss continent

is very begin very long ago but it was the last moment i mean it's a mixture of you know of fuel prices with. misconduct and because of the of coal but of course basically it's against neoliberal policies that were car carried on by mark or. earlier and sarkozy and even earlier so it's a general. direction against it and that's why. you know the concession the government did two days ago are just. you know they have no one no sense because people. they want. basic policies ok let me go to look in brussels where you were nodding your head i mean i thought the government's response was quite. thing but it plays to

a certain procedure or strategy they have first they say well you don't know what you're talking about listen to us where your leaders number two oh you must be these populist which of course is a code word for me oh fascism and then number three they make a minor concession but they don't want to have a discussion about it i mean every step of who way shows a failure of leadership here ok and you haven't fooled these people because they understand that they have the real power and why in the world should poor people have to pay for austerity stared he is making people poor go ahead lieut. well it's the last straw for these people you know about the working french the people who never complain and pay their taxes yet but look at the number of people on the roundabout and look at who is there many women single mothers with kids they cannot feed their kids after the twentieth of the month because they only earn one

thousand three hundred euro per month and they spend three hundred in fuel but that is more than just a few are that or so the gas prices that are supposed to go up for heating and or also electricity prices have gone up five hundred percent of the last five years in france so this is terrible everything at the same time and the price of the motorways and what strikes me as you say is that in terms of communication this theme of it was feet deep and of president michel is incredibly bad incredible three weeks to come to that result saying ok you have one will suppress the tax incredible well they know that but they haven't won the that's what's the that's the wrinkle in all of this here they've just postpone their decision they have a lot more are staring planned it's very very clear what mccrone wants to do it in the legal let me go to you and luxembourg i mean how would you characterize as

a lot of people there say this is class struggle i've mentioned it is they are putting liberalism on trial or what is it for you because the french have a tradition of street protests it's a very rich tradition in france but what is the difference that say between two thousand eighteen and one nine hundred sixty eight go ahead. you need if you want to be interpretation and. we are to discourage. interns you are large middle class lower middle class. or moves. even aged to weave was teddy t. you know overly boast it is a deterrent to tied to tara in for nineteen seventies nineteen eighties and it had been so he's a oh so they couldn't make a politician of bush who was aware of the situation so close

to lower middle class today is the streets today in france older kids over generations have benefited from it couldn't make boom boxes so called home no use so the thirty years after us are going to work you are no you have a backlash you have a systematic backlash you can see they're already behind the sooner you can say many many different things but simply so he teaches you how much in so past you have kids over poll who became rich you know you have a situation where as kids it was a reach. ok state border oh it's you who answer your classes and they did seventy's is no offer you see in the backlash it could be called speaking the situation we've made course now always university where else simply be who has been on the could let me cure it's a kind of temporarily cover over three years we've many hopes of

improvements and supportive of me my coins that should many many people who are picked from my home oh yeah oh no good to air we are now at mccourt's facing the backlash in his face you know kind of education of contractions and even more will seem cohesion of us because he has been the host to lead. to also go no no. no you didn't all are ok you think about us and that's a real stretch a new de gaulle again i was trained historian but it's over the years experience you know de gaulle ok let me go let me go to verona and go back to bruno here i mean i mean i watched. presidential campaign with great interest because i thought it was fascinating how the elites could invent this guy from virtually nowhere sell him to the media but back at him very very much they used the usual scare tactics with madame le pen and now we have their president the elites president that is

completely out of touch with the voters and he's got a long way to go through his term in office over oh no go ahead. yes of course the casting for the was technically very good but have fact cast you know he destroyed all the word casting yes it's a casting it was a pure sting do you know. they forgot that the real people voted for him some of them at least because he had not the strong majority but at least he has a majority they voted for him because they wanted the end of the traditional parties from the were right or left who. create. new liberal policies and he was supposed to be a new man with a new. you know ideology but in fact he was. by the

elite to accelerate the neo liberal policies so i couldn't work i mean it worked for the first two months and then it finished and people discovered they have somebody they call now on the street it's a new king it's not even a new king it's a new mario to a net who completely ignores the real country let them eat cake yes indeed look reflect upon that because i mean he did come in come in making a lot of promises but his promises were to the people they were to the elites that we see this this creeping privatization of medicine for example and louis was absolutely right i mean even into the one nine hundred eighty s. france had a lot to boast about about its health care of its population that is no longer the case today go ahead look. the king is snake it and you mentioned or somebody

mentioned earlier the faith in the first few months it was ok while the media to introduce the eye itself it was one of the missions for which he had been selected you know to introduce this suppression of the tax on fortune all the change of it only to. buildings on the ownership of buildings but the main bulk of the the taxes being suppressed france was one of the few countries to have this that's if not the only one it has suppressed that but now the people of course the poor when you all's them to pay much higher prices for they a few they make a comparison with last year the i.s.f. the suppression of the tax on on fortune's so they can swallow it it's going to at the same time he loves to say that you know it's always at the same time he gave money back to the rich and he took it from the poor that doesn't work you know somebody should tell that young man that this is not the way forward ok louie louie go back to you here i mean it there's been

a lot of defections from across the government i mean is his government under threat right now i mean a lot of people barely don't want to work with him. well typically you whose tone go destabilisation that talking point to i remember as i take out the think obama. team saved something like so the post a decent policeman's excess you hoops gas had been excessive force on the side of my corner and now we face a backlash situations a problem is out of my course you have a three years and a half to lead to create to do due to wage wars the next elections and it will be very difficult on this and he sent trends to find it now g two group was the target so most important thing to do to ensure i know he's out in france who are you seeing the restructuring it could make this iteration you have a sense out. there where it was much better now where you are

for an economic slowdown and people always unified terms over consumption sequences of which we all do it you know what it's really it was tweaked or limited on cash as it was thirty three voting in france and which will be over new york is a shame really i ask if you have to jump in here i don't think gentlemen here we're going to go to our graves and out there our break we'll continue our discussion on the yellow best state with our king. the way to the united states is dangerous for most of the illegal immigrants. cost the most just as they would a simple they want to take on most of enter and i wanted to ask on this but if many

of them look for refuge in the so-called sentry sides the draft used to share information about undocumented migrants with federal authorities the best person to ask than call mom. was you know you know i then had a question i get i'm in a lot of class and i want that bad apple they have or what are the options to stay in the country with donald trump in the white house all over for the gravels they also feel the have to be about the deal of the old affairs it struggles of many couples won't. kill the chance of putting food impulse response both for a few upwards of up to the hope of the. join me every first week on the alex simon shore and i'll be speaking to get a feel of the world of politics sports business i'm showbusiness i'll see that.

when a loved one is murder it's natural to seek the death penalty for the murder i would prefer and it means to win the death penalty just because i think that's a fair thing the right thing research shows that for every nine executions one convict just found innocent the idea that we were executing innocent people was terrifying those just move the parent and then we hear even many victims' families want the death penalty to be abolished the reason we have to keep the death penalty here is because that's what murder victims' families what that's going to give them peace that's going to give them justice and we come in saying. not quite enough we've been through this this isn't the way. welcome back to cross talk where all things considered i'm peter lavelle to remind you we're discussing yellow vests.

ok let me go back to bruno and paris ok we have discussed this simmering revolt against the neo liberal order one could even say elements of the architecture of the european union we can get to that later but bruno one of the things i think is really quite fascinating is this it was and i'm convinced i believe it it was a spontaneous movement that came together and i think the yellow vest metaphor is so brilliant because it's asking for help ok you don't want to be run over because people feel like they're being run over now but the interesting thing is here is that the trade the trade unions didn't step up their political parties didn't step up it just took this this last element this you know the the the element of putting pressure off stared people for them to finally come together and

find solidarity depending on how it goes this is a fascinating phenomenon because the european union and its neil liberal order doesn't like surprises everything is planned out to the last detail this is not supposed to happen go ahead bruno. yeah you are entirely right you know because they. sense of european union wants to create the european confederation of trade unions and what they call the european parties and these structured. corrupted every parties and trade unions and parties from the right and left so. they destroyed any potential of position real opposition to neo liberalism. there is something they couldn't plan that is happening and what is very interesting is that now you have eighty percent of the french people who are against the

government and its policies but what is even more interesting is the fact that it's not the traditional let's say opposition classes which are on the forefront of the fight they support it but they don't do more what is very interesting is no india are calming people from. you know the parish friends i mean the provinces little towns countryside. very young people all people people who never wear octave and it was dubbed part of who is in the joining the neoliberal chorus and that's very interesting and i don't really imagine how. groups and classes will do will manage diet for the next three years yeah well the elites this apparently don't know or really don't care how everybody else lives here look president mccrone said

there is no such thing as french culture saying that there's nationalism is wrong i mean what kind of french president is this something that the wants to emulate did call goal for better or worse and body the greatest traditions of france and of its entire history i would say so what kind of president of france says there is no french culture i'm absolutely aghast by that comment but it seems to be his way of rule is exactly that ok he doesn't care about france go ahead lou . like to be jupiter style of the coal but ease not the coal he doesn't have the respect of the people and he has sort of left a way the intermediate bodies lee calls on the media so there is nobody under

him is there with the government and they are on top of the all limp and they look at the french so he headed for tickle completely vertical there is nobody in between the trade unions as you said are left behind there they are nowhere to be seen he has sort of one against them with the railroads of the s.n.c. if in this instance it is really a rebellion of the poor whites just like for donald trump you mentioned the populist earlier well this is the same sort of phenomena you know ok louis where where does it go here because historically speaking when there is a spontaneous protest or uprising the key to success is sustainability now the a lot of people have come out put on their yellow vests and they've made a statement ok but where does it go from here historically a movement

a large movement that is not organized relatively quickly tends to fade away because people have had their burst of protest but if it is not channeled somehow my understanding is that these people the protesters are not interested in the political parties they're not interested in the trade union stepping forward they don't have a they don't trust any politicians right now it's a very interesting mix right now so my question is where does it go from here go ahead lou in luxembourg. indeed the situation in france is is very different to nineteen sixty eight mobilization insists all the good times thirty percent of wage earners had their hood tied union membership and political parties were very very strong at the end of the gordon edes or ten years fifteen years after their goal no there is you have a kind of disease if you cation over politics you have a situation where trade unions are less than five percent over the age of the house

and its political parties are extremely weak and even weaker we've mccormack well being able to kill social responsibility and the center of tweeting is what if you read we can now all we've heard in town that conflicts so as a situation today technically speaking in sociology we could sat. and money is a problem not only of governance or decision means a part arch of roast turn good structural zeal ads before these enemy in this enemy situation your problems of you have sayed. sometimes you have a new movement had developed perhaps from the union the you know first movement was only existing board most. two months ago and now or you have a situation where there are obviously missing three prisons in into place what he's stable is not so you know his movement so is that so stable to think that you have

a new friend spirit of let's destabilisation strong post haitian sense of nks eighty years ago the in future and in just respect the situation is even more who should marry the poor the n.c. . police the situation you have a situation where people don't really know where it's possible to go so the situation to do is to move to situation to there at this time into account is art. sue sue these are tax. big screens it's from sue. ok. let's really let me tell didn't let me jump in here let me let me jump in here i think what's really fascinating bruno is that right now and of course you're much closer to the ground than i am there is not a whole lot of organisation there still articulating their demands on

a much more macro scale of course there's the the energy prices but you know this is leading to other things but juxtaposition on the other side you have a government that is paralyzed in how to react every step of the way it is stumbled and that it does to me it doesn't look like the government has a learning curve to be able to interact with people to address these grievances so you have these a very strange dynamic going on right now a government that seems paralyzed and it's social i was going to say a social movement i don't even know if it's a social movement yet this is the pool is this is where we're at right go ahead. yes of course there is there are no real strong organization maybe the yellow vest will organize because you have some you know public assembly local public assembly and out of that maybe something will happen i don't know. and it will be very important what happens next saturday it was money for

a station in paris what will happen of course with the leading forces we have to do tendencies i suppose some of them are obviously talking now about the state of emergency which means refresh and and orders are you know tending to talk about you know elections. taking into account that any way in six months there would be european elections so anyway we have a situation. where it's very difficult to know what will happen but what is important is that all of fish will institution of people. you know. place in the year or keep our. eyes on do you know people don't believe anymore in the official values in the official institutions or in the neoliberal policies so i don't know what it will change in the next in the near

future but anyway the french society will never be back to what it was one months ago yeah go to look because they prove their power in numbers ok i tell you the this whole euro project is chair of tide of democracy this well people's well that it's like it is it's like it's like a plague to them ok they need to go back up in their little towers and lock all their gates ok look i mean is there a demonstration effect for the rest of europe watching what's going on in france. i think it is you. saying that belgium holland even serbia germany you have yellow fests appearing maybe it's not the revolution like like this in france but it is going elsewhere as well and you said they are lack of organization it's true that not organized but it is their strength because the power in place in paris cannot

deal with them you can't take you home to talk to people without having all the saying we deny them the authority to speak for us so it is a strength just like in seven thousand nine hundred nine at the french revolution the people were were crying for bread now they cry for forty but it's only a beginning and as you said the liberal order is going to change profoundly in brussels you cannot just simply say that all the progressives and then there are the nationalists this doesn't work anymore you know and the commission can start yesterday they announced that they would go for the fake news like those of course of r.t. and all those who are the bad guys but nobody believes that i mean i knew there was a you know a real trend let me look let me just i'm going to end right we're almost you know i'm so glad you brought that up i'm going to end on this i am so pleased that maybe finally we can start reinventing our political language because what the mainstream media tries to do is buttonhole us divide as something new is happening and it's

exciting let's keep our eyes open that's all the time we have gentlemen many thanks to my guests in paris brussels and in luxembourg and thanks to our viewers for watching us here at r d c a next time and remember trust of those. despite this out of need. not authorized the bagger but i again gadget guns which i live. in i'm going to have to go to church. but unless i get it all wrong or thought of the most i'm not the hosea i mean look if you get a thump and you know has a funny but it was a million. right on the

bank call for the white guy bayswater it chemical lies and this is going to that he would develop a new treatment in time national mafia know that these industries out of the new things you're a dissenting ignore the money that type. of even else and they need all of them other than lightning to the last day in this. i've been saying the numbers mean something they matter the us is over twenty trillion dollars in debt more than ten white collar crimes happen each day. eighty five percent of the global wealth you longs to be old for rich eight point six percent market saw thirty percent just last year some with four hundred to five

hundred three per second per second and bitcoin rose to twenty thousand dollars. china is building a two point one billion dollar a i industrial park but don't let the numbers overwhelms. the only numbers you need to remember is one one does not show you can afford to miss the one and only. that. was. standing with the yellow vests. streets on fire over education reforms following weeks of nationwide protests against a fuel price increase.