Early Christmas For France's 'yellow Vests', But Will They Cheer?

Emmanuel Macron's government mobilised Tuesday to sell the financial relief offered to quell the "yellow vest" movement, after many of its members assailed the measures as not enough to end protests which have spiralled into weekends of violence and vandalism in Paris and other cities

Paris, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th Dec, 2018 ) :Emmanuel Macron's government mobilised Tuesday to sell the financial relief offered to quell the "yellow vest" movement, after many of its members assailed the measures as not enough to end protests which have spiralled into weekends of violence and vandalism in Paris and other cities.

More than 21 million people watched a visibly contrite Macron declare a "state of economic and social emergency" in a televised address Monday, while loosening the government's purse strings to bolster the minimum wage and pension payouts for millions of people.

The measures, whose cost is estimated at 8 to 10 billion Euros ($9-11.4 billion), include a 100-euro jump in the minimum wage next year, on top of the 1.8 percent increase already announced to keep up with inflation.

The moves are likely to push France's deficit above the EU's mandated 3 percent limit of GDP at least "temporarily," Richard Ferrand, the parliament president in Macron's Republic on the Move party, told RTL radio.

Without explicitly abandoning the government's target for a 2.8 percent deficit this year, he said having "a stable France" was the priority as the protests expose deep social divisions while taking a heavy economic toll.

"We can't continue like this," he said.

Even so, the measures might not mollify enough protesters to call off road blockades and weekly demonstrations in Paris. The unrest, which kicked off on November 17, has seen fierce clashes between protesters and police and extensive burning and looting over the past two Saturdays.

Many "yellow vests", so called for the high-visibility safety jackets they have donned, were swift to dismiss Macron's olive branches in the wake of his speech.

But others were ready to call a halt to the protests, welcoming the 40-year-old centrist's pledge to meet with the movement's members.

Jacline Mouraud, an accordionist from the Brittany region whose YouTube tirade in October against fuel taxes helped spark the protests, called Monday for a "truce".

"The economy is suffering, shop owners are on the verge of having to shut down, we don'twant to be responsible for a wave of bankruptcies," Mouraud said.