Yellow Vests resurgence in France, Macron reeling

[Lechasseur]

I'm starting to get the feeling Macron won't survive as President much longer...

He will, because the French Constitution is basically designed to make the President irremovable both formally and in terms of practical incentives, but he might be on his way to turning into a lame duck faster than even Flamby did (even after his defeat at the European elections he wasn't quite toast). Of course, he still has a chance to avoid this fate, but time is running out.

Agreed, except by that point I think Hollande basically was toast. Nobody I knew thought he would run again and that Valls would be the PS nominee in 2017.

But yeah I agree, Macron will not be removed from office but he's entering lame duck territory now.

[Lechasseur]

The French economy has been struggling for years, and might well now be vying with Italy to be the 'sick man of Europe.'

This is definitely true. I actually think Northern Italy is generally better off economically and socially than France overall is, the thing that pulls Italy down is Southern Italy and its severe problems.

[Lechasseur]

Something people should remember about France is that voters just naturally hate their politicians. Macron never had any hope of bucking said trend...

That is true, Giscard was probably the last president whose popularity didn't go down the drain really quickly.

And out of the current batch of politicians, I can't say I approve of any of the party leaders either.

But Macron made his problems worse by being condescending and speaking down to people, he'd probably be several points more popular if his attitude was better.

[Lechasseur]

It's painfully obvious that the Yellow Vests' grievances are largely based on regional inequalities between the Parisians who control every aspect of French life and the comparatively immiserated inhabitants of the rest of the country, but both rational choice theorists and the woketariat see the idea of talking seriously about regional inequality as a threat so I'm not surprised it's not being discussed in this thread.

This

[Lechasseur]

It's painfully obvious that the Yellow Vests' grievances are largely based on regional inequalities between the Parisians who control every aspect of French life and the comparatively immiserated inhabitants of the rest of the country, but both rational choice theorists and the woketariat see the idea of talking seriously about regional inequality as a threat so I'm not surprised it's not being discussed in this thread.

If that were true, agriculture subsidies in France wouldn't have gone on for as long as they have.

In order for the existence of agriculture subsidies to be a sufficient counterargument, you have to also be willing to say that there's no regional inequality in the United States.

Agreed