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Violent Protests Spread from Paris to Belgium and now, the Netherlands
PJ Media ^ | 12/08/2018 | Rick Moran

Posted on 12/08/2018 8:06:57 PM PST by SeekAndFind

At least 700 people were arrested in Paris as 5,000 demonstrators faced off against 8,000 police in another violent demonstration by "yellow vest" protesters.

Riots broke out all over France despite the supposed cause of the violence being eliminated earlier in the week by the government of President Emmanuel Macron. The government had been claiming that a fuel tax increase was to blame for the protests, but the government rescinded the increase on Wednesday.

Donald Trump believes it was Macron's climate change policies:

But the protesters themselves were giving the real reason for the violence -- if anyone in Macron's government was listening.

Fox News:

"We are not here to destroy Paris, we are here to tell Macron we are f--king fed up," said one protester before the clashes with the police began, adding that the people are protesting ever-increasing taxes on the working class.

[...]

Many protesters slammed the French media for portraying the protests as led by violent agitators and for siding with Macron's government.

"We are not black bloc [black clad anarchists], we are ordinary people voicing our anger," said a protester who did not want to be identified.

Meanwhile, the contagion has spread to neighboring Belgium and the Netherlands.

ABC News:

Belgian police fired tear gas and water cannons at yellow-vested protesters calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Charles Michel after they tried to breach a riot barricade, as the movement that started in  France made its mark Saturday in  Belgium and the Netherlands.

Protesters in Brussels threw paving stones, road signs, fireworks, flares and other objects at police blocking their entry to an area where Michel's offices, other government buildings and the parliament are located.

Brussels police spokeswoman Ilse Van de Keere said that around 400 protesters were gathered in the area.

About 100 were detained, many for carrying dangerous objects like fireworks or clothing that could be used as protection in clashes with police.

The reasons for the protests are not entirely clear. Neither Belgium nor the Netherlands has proposed a hike in fuel tax — the catalyst for the massive and destructive demonstrations in France in recent weeks.

Instead, protesters appeared to hail at least in part from a populist movement that is angry at government policy in general and what it sees as the widening gulf between mainstream politicians and the voters who put them in power. Some in Belgium appeared intent only on confronting police.


The fuel tax hike was a "catalyst" for French protests only in the mind of the media, something they should now sheepishly admit given the spread of the protests to neighboring countries.

In the Dutch city of Rotterdam, a few hundred protesters in the high-visibility vests that have become a symbol of the movement walked peacefully across the downtown Erasmus Bridge singing a song about the Netherlands and handing flowers to passers-by.

Sisters Beb and Ieneke Lambermont, aged 76 and 67 respectively, were among them.

"Our children are hard-working people but they have to pay taxes everywhere. You can't get housing anymore. It is not going well in Dutch society," Ieneke said. "The social welfare net we grew up with is gone," she said.

"The government is not there for the people. It is there to protect its own interests," she said.

Are you listening, EU leaders?

The nationalist movements in Europe are not the stirrings of proto-fascists, or due to hatred for refugees. Certainly there is some of that sentiment present and it is worrisome. But the ordinary people who are paying for the grandiose schemes of the social planners in Brussels have had enough. And they are finally rising up to demand an end to it.

This is a continent-wide class protest, something Europe has been experiencing for more than 100 years. In that, there is nothing new.

What is new is that the grand social democratic experiment that began after the end of World War II may finally be coming to an end. Governments can only spend other people's money for so long before there is a backlash. I would say that the backlash is well underway.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Russia
KEYWORDS: agw; belgium; climate; climatechange; climatehoax; emmanuelmacron; europe; europeanunion; france; fueltax; globalwarminghoax; macron; netherlands; protest; publicallies; riots; russia; taxation; taxes; yellowvest
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To: SeekAndFind
My, my. I didn't expect to see this for years, perhaps not in my lifetime. And here we are.

This has been building for some time, and it isn't about prices at the pump. Refer if you please to This Speech. It reads, in part:

The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive. Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?

It has been 18 months since that speech. Something is moving, and it's very big.

21 posted on 12/08/2018 9:04:50 PM PST by Billthedrill
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To: SeekAndFind

And not a peep from the globalist gaslight presstitutes.


22 posted on 12/08/2018 9:23:23 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Democracy dies when Democrats refuse to accept the result of a democratic election they didn't win.)
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To: familyop

I hope so.
I hope they rip apart the EU and burn every news building and university to the gtound.


23 posted on 12/08/2018 9:39:42 PM PST by ZULU (Jeff Sessions should be tried for sedition.)
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To: Billthedrill

Reminds me of the attempted Foreign Legion coup attempt against Charles de Gaulle in 1961 (I’m that old) with Edith Piaf singing

“Et non, rien de rien, et non, je ne regrette rien...”

This is an uprising not seen since then, not even like in 1968. When the French police fire on les gilets jaunes, then it’s civil war. Entre le regime et des musulmanes, it’s a war between the elites and the citizens. But just as in 1944, the guns will appear and they will be used.

Vive la France libre!


24 posted on 12/08/2018 9:47:08 PM PST by elcid1970 (My gun safe is saying, "Room for one more, honey!")
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To: SpaceBar

I would add a third group onto the movement...since that civic duty mandate was handed out this week in France (mandating 16-year old kids are now in some conscription service)....that has been taken in a negative way. So you also have this vast group of 14 to 18 year old school kids joining up with the street hoods and the Yellow Jackets. Potentially, as the Macron government is handing out these various mandates....they are simply creating wave after wave of new participants in the protest deal. There might be some quiet period coming up at the end of the month for Christmas....but it’ll hype back up by New Years.

It’ll be curious if this goes into other countries (suggesting a problem for the EU election in May 2019).


25 posted on 12/08/2018 9:50:01 PM PST by pepsionice
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To: SeekAndFind
Yellow Jackets?

Never Mind...

26 posted on 12/08/2018 10:05:35 PM PST by ZOOKER (Until further notice the /s is implied...)
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To: SeekAndFind
The nationalist movements in Europe are not the stirrings of proto-fascists, or due to hatred for refugees. Certainly there is some of that sentiment present and it is worrisome.

Hey Rick, you're a stupid cuck.

27 posted on 12/08/2018 10:09:25 PM PST by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

And not a peep from the globalist gaslight presstitutes.


Not exactly. I’ve seen a few try to blame this on Putin. Ha ha.


28 posted on 12/08/2018 10:11:34 PM PST by lodi90
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To: lapsus calami; little jeremiah; a little elbow grease; bitt

Maybe this is why Frau Merkel was making noises about an “European Army” - probably to serve in a capacity much like OMON does in Russia.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hep me out here, but didn’t barack hussein bin soetoro propose ther USA should also have a national police force??


29 posted on 12/08/2018 10:32:54 PM PST by thinden
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To: thinden

Why yes, yes 0b0la did propose that.

I think the EU is dead, just twitching for a while.


30 posted on 12/08/2018 10:42:15 PM PST by little jeremiah (When we do not punish evildoers we are ripping the foundations of justice from future generations)
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To: pepsionice

Ambulance drivers and cops joined the protests yesterday. Streets were shut down with hundreds of ambulances blocking them and the medics supporting the protests.

There is a list of 8 demands and they’re all good. Freepmail me so I remember if you want me to post them.


31 posted on 12/08/2018 10:46:56 PM PST by little jeremiah (When we do not punish evildoers we are ripping the foundations of justice from future generations)
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To: thinden

And Steve Bannon has been in Europe for a while, talking to various oppo leaders apparently. He was for sure talking with Marine Le Pen.


32 posted on 12/08/2018 10:47:34 PM PST by little jeremiah (When we do not punish evildoers we are ripping the foundations of justice from future generations)
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To: SeekAndFind

bookmark


33 posted on 12/08/2018 10:57:45 PM PST by GOP Poet
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To: little jeremiah

Last night, via some Brit broadcast...they had up to around 40 different demands on the table. The fact that there is no central leadership...makes this a wild ‘ride’.

One the demands I noted....earlier retirement ages. That’s a no-go for the Macron government. The pension program is already in serious trouble, so shaving off another year probably won’t happen.

The punk-kid protesters want the mandatory civic duty forced upon them to be lifted entirely.


34 posted on 12/08/2018 11:07:21 PM PST by pepsionice
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To: SeekAndFind

Ah, the Frenchies. They wanted socialism . They got socialism. Quell horror! Sacre bleu! Now they don’t want socialism.


35 posted on 12/09/2018 12:20:22 AM PST by jmacusa (Made it Ma, top of the world!'')
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To: jmacusa

It’s “quelle horreur”. And sacre bleu isn’t ever said anymore, replaced by “putain de merde”.


36 posted on 12/09/2018 12:33:52 AM PST by miniTAX
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To: miniTAX

Merci. It’s been a while since high school French class.


37 posted on 12/09/2018 12:36:59 AM PST by jmacusa (Made it Ma, top of the world!'')
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To: SeekAndFind
The government had been claiming that a fuel tax increase was to blame for the protests...

And a video was the cause of the Benghazi attack.

38 posted on 12/09/2018 12:45:37 AM PST by Fresh Wind (Trump: "In the meantime, I'm president and you're not!")
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Good time for Western Europeans to take back their country(s) from the Globalists that are pissing in their shoes.


39 posted on 12/09/2018 12:48:33 AM PST by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: Billthedrill
Thanks for that Trump speech from Warsaw. Here is a link to another great speech made in England in 1968. It's about the dangers of immigration . It is now called the Rivers of Blood Speech
40 posted on 12/09/2018 1:05:48 AM PST by Nateman (If the left is not screaming, you are doing it wrong)
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