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 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 been friends. across talking france's yellow vests i'm joined by my guest bruno to westy 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 to 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 the the catalyst for these protests in this protest movement was an increase in fuel prices but i think the larger pretty picture is that this is a protest against me a liberal policies that of 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 arrogance of course but of course basically it's against new liberal policies that was carried on by my core. 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 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 or strategy they have first they say well you don't know what you're talking about listen to us we're your leaders number two oh you must be these populist which of course is a code word for neo 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 they're out there 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 mom. because they only earn one

thousand three hundred euro per month and days spend three hundred in fuel but that is more than just the fuel that is also at the gas prices that was 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 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 of say between two thousand eighteen and one nine hundred sixty eight go ahead louis. in these if you want to be for interpretation in terms of what it takes we have to discourage businesses who are g. chord. so soon as you could have any t two days out in friends you were allowed me to class whoever the class that was very stable or or most privileged to we've who has tended to see you know over labels that is a deterrent to tad's if there are in for nineteen seventies nineteen eighties and it had been so reserves also they couldn't meet a politician of zoo or bush who was a 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 the so called world who are now 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 who he is actually 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 any backlash it could be king the situation we've made corn now always university where else simply because those who had been on the couldn't make your burden permits a kind of temporarily cover over at 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 no good to an area now out mccourt's facing a backlash in his face you know kind of gauge of contractions and even more simple decision 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 to go all ok i was trained as story and. he is 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 or if it were 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 neoliberal 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 barely 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 take out the ink obama. team saved something large so the post the disappointments. hoops the as it had been on the side of my career and now we face a backlash situations a problem is out of my course you have three years in iraq off to we decree to do to wait two hours the next elections and it would 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 endure and i know he's out in friends who are free seeing. 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 are all down and people on what is unified terms of the concern sequences of which we all do it it's usually it was tweaked or limited on cash. in friends and which will be over new is a shame really i ask if you have to jump in here so i don't think gentlemen here we're going to go to our graves and after our break we'll continue our discussion on the yellow best state with our king. we did go the economic diplomacy nuts while complement of normal 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 with any of. the differences we have between the two will be in.

memory before a trade war leaves a hot water currency war later trade. more in the current you are going on already with the china peg artificially low to get their exports to the u.s. in a way to build their economy and then the u.s. it worker was losing their job but they were paying less for chinese made stuff and so there was a symbiotic relationship going on so if the question is who's going to be a twenty first century empire and who's going to lose if it's 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. he's finding this out the need. arise how to partner with the you can get out your guns which island. to employ is going to go to reach. them with the other third the most almost the whole

cd i mean look if you could get them for you know has a funny. little. bit of. that right on the bank call for the work on the base walk or chemical lights and this is going to be would be a new treatment there internationally mockers know that these industries polluting you had to simply ignore your money and mother. and the mother of the means we lost even this.

welcome back to cross talk we're all for. so 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 this element of putting pressure on 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 really right you know because they are success of european union was to create the european confederation of trade unions and what they called the european parties and these structured by corrupted every parties and trade unions and parties from the right and left so i am they destroyed any potential of position

a position to neo liberalism. there is something they could that is happen. 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 no india are calming people from. you know the perry favorite conference i mean the province little towns countryside. very young people all over 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 know 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. luke 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 lieut. 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 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 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 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 golden years or ten years fifteen years after the good no days you ever kind of does it 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 met with being able to kill social responsibility and the center of tween is what is he really we can do now we've been down that conflicts so as a situation today technically speaking in sociology we could do that and only and money is a problem not only of governance of decision means a part arch of roast turn good structural they have ads before in these anime in this anime situation your problem some of 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 missing three prisons in into place what's he's stable is not so you know his movement so stable to think that you have a new friend spirit of let's destabilisation strong post haitian sense of nks a t. together in future and in just a specter situation is even more who should marry the poor the n.c. . police the situation you have a situation where people don't 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. exempt from ok. let's really didn't meet justin here let me let me jump in here i think what's

really fascinating 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 there's no 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 out 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 within the leading forces we have to do tendencies i suppose some of them are all obviously talking now about the state of emergency 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 fishel institution of people. you know. and you place in the year are key are. do you know people

don't believe anymore in the official value of. 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 luke 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 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 their lack of organization is true they are 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 that the french revolution the people were were crying for bread now they cry for force 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 out 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 you know a real trend let me look let me just read and write 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 our d.c. you next time and remember cost of. the way to the united states is dangerous for most of the illegal immigrants. who are still just as the world of simple so they want to become. and i want us to sum this up but if many of them look for refuge in the so-called sentry sides the drifter used to share information about undocumented migrants with federal

authorities the best person to ask than. listening to morrow at m.m.s. i'm not getting a lot of class and i want that. they can watch as they all choose to stay in the country with donald trump in the white house for political rivals they're supposed to be what is the who to beat up to the. i said sit many couples won't kill the chance of putting food impulse response both of you out to do the most of the. you know world of big part of the law and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that made stream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the back and shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now we're

watching closely watching the hawks. there's a saying. i think they're going to be chief justice and then we went through all the countries let's idea is really their right let's go through this country he said if we give them everything it seemed to pass. in this country he said this is what we don't understand how we are poor in such a country. but i never said that in the month of the same time. it was not i meant . the soon to run off with a similar solution john a good one. because if you feel if the minutes of kong were not that

you got to meet leave again with the phone the computer without the plane. would come back to the three story you have to see. at least in the best the. if you look at. the view. it's. going to. come out. standing with a very yellow vests of students across france to take to the streets over education reforms that follows weeks of protests against fuel price increases which forced a government u. turn. the end of an era for germany's ruling christian devil.