“Now Is The Winter Of Our Discontent”
This famous sentence came to my mind upon returning form my two-week stay in France during the Xmas and New Year’s holidays. President Macron is not Richard III, certainly did not utter these lines in a soliloquy, and dogs don’t bark at him, but his nemesis, the gilets jaunes, or yellow vests yell for his resignation. The discontent is on the side of the yellow vests. Since November, the French president has been haplessly watching the yellow vests’ protests descend into open warfare. Triggered by a fuel tax rise, the protest started in the countryside as a demonstration of social discontent and loss of purchasing power by low and middle-income people. The rural regions feel marginalized and ill-treated by the technocratic government of an urban and aloof president who appears to pamper the richer citizens at the expense of the working class. At its onset, the movement received 80% support from the French people, who always side with the underdog...