Current Events- Yellow Jacket Protests

Right now, Paris is on lock-down. Entire areas of the city are off limits to vehicles, and pedestrians have to go through checkpoints with searches. Teargas canisters line the streets, and protesters wearing yellow jackets are clashing with the police, thanks to some of the worst French riots in a long time. While the country is no stranger to protests and riots, they rarely reach this scale, as over 125,000 demonstrators are marching in the country. What started as a protest against new fuel taxes by lower-middle class people in rural France has evolved dramatically. The protesters are extremely diverse, and contain everything from students to anarchists to fascists, but they all have one thing in common: they're furious with the French President Macron. This isn't helped by the fact that Macron's popularity rates have fallen drastically before the fuel tax was even proposed, due to his attempts to create economic policies. They are currently sitting around the 20s. For comparison, controversial American president Donald Trump's popularity ratings are sitting at about 40%.  The protests are causing serious damage, likely in the range of millions of dollars. The country's economic minster has even warned about the potential large economic damage of the protests. People outside of France have had varied responses to the protests. In America, many conservative figures have tried to spin the protest as anti-left, including president Donald Trump, who has claimed that in the streets of Paris, people are chanting "We want Trump!" These claims misconstrue the situation, and in the case of president Trump, are blatantly untrue. The Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, has already announced that the fuel taxes would be rolled back, but this hasn't been enough to quell the protesters' anger. It's hard to say how long these protests will go on, or if they'll be stopped by anything less than President Macron stepping down.

Citations
Clarke, Hilary, and Gianluca Mezzofiore. “Who Are the 'Yellow Vest' Protesters Causing Chaos in France?” CNN, Cable News Network, 8 Dec. 2018, edition.cnn.com/2018/12/07/europe/who-are-gilet-jaunes-intl/index.html.
Gallup, Inc. “Presidential Approval Ratings -- Donald Trump.” Gallup.com, 2 Dec. 2018, news.gallup.com/poll/203198/presidential-approval-ratings-donald-trump.aspx.
Saliba, Emmanuelle, and Linda Givetash. “France's Finance Minister Warns Protests Pose Catastrophe for the Economy.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 9 Dec. 2018, www.nbcnews.com/news/world/france-s-finance-minister-warns-catastrophic-effects-yellow-jacket-protests-n945766.
Vinocur, Nicholas. “France in Lock-down Mode Ahead of New 'Yellow Jacket' Protests.” POLITICO, POLITICO, 7 Dec. 2018, www.politico.eu/article/macron-yellow-jacket-france-in-lock-down-mode-ahead-of-new-protests/.

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