national spats and then he brought up the script case as an example as saying that only greece decided not to support the e.u. initiative for to expel russian diplomats over the case and now the press conference and it's on a rather a positive note when a russian draw unless asked mr tsipras why he did not keep up his promise to put on the time i have his party wins parliamentary elections and be a greek a dad gets resolved and hear what the prime minister sat. i guess you missed it but i'd already put on that sorry within to get off quickly but tony is going to leave around the neck of the greek people i think this symbolism is very important but if mr putin gives me such a gift at the next meeting i'll certainly wear it. but doing it. all and all judging by the statements that were voice during the press conference

it does seem that the relations between the two countries are on a for him footing. and i'll be back at the top of the hour with more but first on r.t. international it's cross talk. hello

and welcome to cross talk where all things considered i'm peter lavelle what does the rise of the yellow vest movement in france tell us about the state of the neoliberal order in europe are the protests in france the largest since one thousand nine hundred eighty eight just about a hike in fuel prices and is emmanuel the right person to be president to address the problems so many have been friends. across talking france's yellow vests i'm joined by my guest bruno west ski in 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. the catalyst for these protests and this protest movement was a increase in fuel prices but i think the larger pretty picture is that this is a protest against me a liberal 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 contant 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 arrogance of coal but of course basically it's against neoliberal policies that was carried on by my corps. 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 there you were nodding your head i mean i thought the government's response was quite interesting but it plays to

a certain procedure 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 meal 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 fuld 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 look. well it's the last straw for these people you know 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 days spend three hundred in fuel but that is more than just a few are that it's also 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 team of it well feed 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 did that that's the wrinkle in all of this here they've just postpone their decision they have a lot more austerity 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 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 in one nine hundred sixty eight go ahead louis. he needs if you want us to be for interpretation in terms of what it takes we have to discard businesses who are very deep so suited you could have any t two days out in friends you were allowed to middle class who were the class that was very stable or or most privileged to we've who has tended to see over labels that is that it had to tired to draw in for nineteen seventies nineteen eighties and it had been so he's a oh so they couldn't make a politician of the bush twelve walk of situation. as

do you i mean the last two days are streets today in france all the kids over generations have benefited from it couldn't make bomb called tone no use so the thirty years after us are going to argue are no you have a backlash you have a systematic backlash you can say it's nobody behind the zoom you can say many many different things but simply zahedi tease out into a past so you have kids over paul who became rich now you have a situation where as kids it was a reach. ok state border oh it's you who answer your castles and they did seventy's is no offer you see in the backlash it could equally speaking the situation we've made corn now always university where else simply because those who had been on the couldn't make your bone permits a temporarily cover over three years we've many hopes of improvements and supportive of me my coins actually many many people are corporate

from my corner you know you're no good to an area now are mccourt's facing a backlash in his face you know kind of gauge of contractions and even marvel seem cohesion of patience because he had to be in the host to let go of new. who. knew just all. about that's a real stretch a new de gaulle ok i was trained as story and. see as no de gaulle ok let me go let me go to bruno and go back to bruno here i mean i mean i watched the 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 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 just forgot 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. created. neo 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 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 me to

introduce the i assess 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 some 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 apparently don't want to work with him. well typically you who's talking go disturb is a shame that so important to remember as i. am now. team stayed something lived so the post the disappointments. hoopes me as i had been the orcs on the side of my corner and now we face a backlash the situation is a problem is out of my course to three years and a half too early to create to do due to waitrose or the next elections and it will be very difficult on this and he sent trends to find it now gee too good to see that so most important thing to do to endure and i know he's out in friends who are freezing in the restructuring it could meet this iteration you have a sense out who. is who goes. through aware of what's much but don't know you well

for the clinics your down and people on it unified terms of the concern sequences of the action we all do it you know what it's really it was tweaked or limited on cash at just thirty three birding in france and which will be over new york is a shame really i ask if you have to jump in here so i have to jump in here we're going to go to our grave and out there our break we'll continue our discussion on the yellow best state with our king. we have got the economic diplomacy complement if not about political diplomacy and as i said we did not consider that the himself will be something some mind suggests is that i have to wait and within it the difference is we have been told it will be a new. copy as

i'm that has such a point spread to. nicol allegation that it's lost almost all meaning if any politician regardless of their beliefs can be labeled a populist isn't all politics populism of some sort or another. welcome back to cross talk we're 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 you know what 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 this 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 neo liberal order doesn't like surprises everything is planned out to the last detail this is not supposed to happen go ahead bruno. yeah. untiringly right you know because

they. success of european union was to create the european confederation of trade unions and what they call the european parties and this structure financed by brazil corrupted every parties and trade unions and parties from the right and left so i am 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 supported but they don't do more what is very interesting is now india are calming people from the you know the parish

friends i mean the provinces little towns countryside. very young people all people people who never where active and it was dubbed part of. joining the anti 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 nationalism is wrong i mean what kind of french president is this something that wants to emulate did call did golf for better or worse embody the. raters traditions of france and

of its entire history i would say so what kind of president of france to says there's no french culture i am 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 lieut. true like to be jupiter style of the coal but he's 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 that 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 had it vertical 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 warm 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 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 though there is you have a kind of disease if you get over politics you have a situation where tight unions are less than five percent over the age of the house and its political parties are extremely weak and even weaker we've met with being able to kill social responsibility and the center which. is what if you read we can have now all we've been down that conflicts so as a situation today technically speaking in sociology we could sad. and money is

a problem not only of governance or decision means a part arch people have roast turned good structural they have ads before in these anime in this anime situation your problem source you have sayed. so the times you have a new movement are developed perhaps from the the in the you know first movement was only existing board most. two months ago and now or you have a situation where there are obviously mis every prison scene in into place what he's stable is not so you know his movements 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 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 the situation today at this time in the current is art. sue sue these are tax. excluded from sue are you. ok. what's really 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 organization 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 there's no it does it least 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 if so should 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

anyway 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 and do you know people don't believe anymore in the official values officials institutions in the neoliberal policies so i don't know what it will turn in the next in the near future but anyway the french society will never be back to what it was one month 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 are saying that belcher. 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 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 hundred eighty nine that the french revolution the people were were crying for bread now they cry for but it's only a beginning and as you said the liberal order is coming change profoundly in

brussels you cannot just simply say that all the progressives and then there are the nationalists this doesn't work and you know and the commission can start yesterday they announced that they would go for the fake news like those of course of our two you know all those who are the bad guys but nobody believes that i mean i knew there was 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 thereby there is 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. remember

before a trade war leaves a hot war there's currency war there's a trade war were in the current you are going on already but the china peg artificially low to get their exports. the us in a way. there was a symbiotic relationship going on. question who's going to be. going to the u.s. or china my thought is going to be a coterminous and that both the u.s. and china are going to fall apart. political allegation that. any politician.

isn't. of some sort or another. but all right. and this is going to. treat them and their international mascherano that these industries are new to simply ignore the money.

and. was. but. i believe. standing with the yellow best students across france taking to the streets over education reforms it follows weeks of protests against fuel price increases which forced a government new to. the end of an era for germany's relink.