watch kaiser report. but. let's. talk about. what i did when i was. standing with the yellow vests students across friends who take to the streets over education reforms it follows weeks of protests against fuel price increases which forced a government. the end of an era for germany's

a ruling christian democrats merkel is replaced at the helm by the gret current power also known as a k k. the search and rescue ship of the aquarius which has saved thousands of migrants from the mediterranean has announced it is ceasing operations . you can find those stories and lots more over on our website our t. dot com my colleague nikki erin as lovely as she is she'll be back with you and your world news in the about an hour's time by now though it's crosstalk. hello and welcome to crossfire we're all things considered i'm peter lavelle what

does the rise of the yellow. movement in france tell us about the state of the neo liberal order in europe are the protests in france the largest since one thousand nine hundred sixty eight just about a hike in fuel prices and is emanuel 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 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 louis chevelle he is a professor at the university of luxembourg all right gentlemen crosstalk 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 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 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 origins of coal but of course basically it's against neoliberal policies that was where car carried on by my core. earlier and sarkozy

and even early. so it's a general. election 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 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 neil 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 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 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 wafa 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 bid 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 stared 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 to our interpretation and. we are to discourage. so. in friends you are large middle class you know where we look. or moves. even aged to weave was teddy t. you know over the bows 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 bush who was a welcome. situation so close do you know what i mean the last two days are streets today in france all the kids over generations have benefited from it couldn't make bolted from it couldn't make bomb. tone 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 say they're already behind the sooner you can say many many different things but simply who he is or how much into past 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 didn't seventy's is no offer you see any backlash it could weakly speaking the situation we've made course now always universe where else simply be who has been on the couldn't make your boat it's a temporarily good cover over three years we've many hopes of improvements and supportive of me my coins that should many many people quote from my home oh yeah oh no good to air we are now at mccourt's facing a backlash in his face you know kind of a gauge of contention and even more simple these asian over play sions because he had to be in the host to lead. to also go no no.

no you didn't all are ok though think about us and that's a real stretch a new de gaulle again i was trained historian but it's not that he isn't it's a it's you know de gaulle ok let me go let me go to go back to bruno here i. 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 they 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. 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 whose tone go disturb is a shame that so important to remember. obama. team say something like so the post the disappointments. the as he had been the. site of my course and

now we face a backlash situations a problem he's out to. three years and have to lead to create to do to waitrose the next election send it would be very difficult on this and he sent trends to do find it now gee too good to talk to so most important thing to do and so on i know he's out in friends who are you seeing. it could meet this iteration you have a sense out who. is who goes. through where. no you are for the clinics rolled down and people on what is unified over concern sequences of such. as tweaked are limited on cash. impressions and which will be over new is a shame really i ask if you have to jump in here so i am to jump in 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 team. member before a trade war leaves a hot war there's currency war plays a trade war based on where the person you are going on already but the china peg artificially allowed to get their exports to the u.s. in a way to build their economy and then the u.s. at work or was losing their job but they're paying less for chinese made stuff and so there was this symbiotic relationship going on if the. the question is who's going to be a twenty first century empire and who's going to lose if it's going to be 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.

computers and is such a way to spread political allegation that it's most 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 trip 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 austerity 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 in its neil liberal order doesn't like surprises everything is planned out to the last detail this is not supposed to happen go ahead. yeah. really right you know because

they are 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 who is in the joining the anti neo liberal 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 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 is nationalist. them is wrong i mean what kind of french president is this something that the once to immolate did call did gall for better or worse in body the greatest traditions of france and if of its entire history i would say so what kind of president of

friends to says there is 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 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 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 vest 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 very different to nineteen sixty eight to 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 all the good no days you ever kind of does it if you go over politics you have a situation where trade unions are less than five percent over wage on the house and political parties are extremely weak and even weaker we've mccormick who have been able to keep social responsibility and the center who. is what is he really we can have now or we've been down that conflicts so as a situation today technically speaking in sociology we could do that. and the music problem not only of governance over decision means

a part arch of roast turn good structure all the ads before this 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 existing in the 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 future or and in just respect a 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. big scrooge's from sue are you to be in the ok from. what'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 is 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 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 are key are. you know people don't believe anymore in the official value of 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 is where 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 their lack of organization is 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 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 coming 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 you know a real trend let me look let me just i'm going to get it right 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 there by the 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 just i.

would hope to do you should. put themselves on the line to get accepted or rejected . so when you want to be president. or something i want to. have to write to the press that's what i'm up for free a boy can't be good. i'm interested always in the waters of our last. question. when a loved one is murder it's natural to seek the death penalty for the murder i would prefer and it means to live the death penalty just because i think that's the fair thing the right thing research shows that for every nine executions one convict is found innocent the idea that we were executing innocent people was terrifying who's

just no way to present and that we're even many of the times 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 want that's going to give them peace that's going to give them justice and we come in and say. not quite enough we've been through this this isn't the way. max kaiser this is the kaiser report oh g. twenty time g. twenty time question is offered are we globalize ing a digital blood sing dollar rising or do dollar rising let's get some more details from stacey yes the g.

twenty was earlier this week there's been so much going on and of course we're getting to it now but i want to look at this headline here because it's quite remarkable about the g. twenty what their sense of what was happening there g twenty summit top agenda item by by american empire we here at kaiser report have kind of been covering this for the past few years the sense that the events we're witnessing in the world whether it's the economic crisis the global financial crisis the war on terror all this stuff is really about a disintegrating empire it's not unique there have been many disintegrated and disintegrating empires throughout history and this is just another time. every single company all sorts of businesses industries corporations rise and fall and this is what we're going through but at the g twenty. you know it was very awkward g twenty because there are all sorts of trade wars and.