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[–] 0 points 8 months ago (4 children)

Yes, but what did they achieve? I know about the protests. The wiki article you linked doesn't mention any gains.

"Participation in the weekly protests diminished and eventually ended entirely due to the COVID-19 pandemic in France, although minor protests continued after health restrictions were lifted."

Those were mainly Macron opponents protesting and demanding his resignation. He didn't resign. They had some other demands but the article doesn't mention if any of them were realized by the government.

So yes, the protests looked nice in pictures but besides damaging some property, what did they achieve?

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    They successfully canceled a gas tax raise.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (2 children)

    I think it was more of a delay than cancellation: https://www.connexionfrance.com/news/more-drivers-to-pay-higher-pollution-taxes-on-new-car-registrations-in-france/705889

    Gas prices went up everywhere anyway. But yes, I guess that was some concession from the government so it's a good example.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    You’ll have to look a decade in the past.

    Under former presidents (Hollande, Sarko and Chirac) protests did work.

    Now it’s only since Macron that they are less effective as he does not care unless everything is literally burning.

    I don’t have examples in mind, I participated in some of them but I was younger and do not really remember the details.

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  • [–] 0 points 8 months ago

    Someone gave example of mass protests against El Khomri law under Hollande and despite the protests the law did pass. But yeah, maybe before that it did work. My point is that in Spain for example worker unions score wins all the time while it looks like in France the government simply learned to ignore the protests. The perception that the French are better at fighting for their rights than other nations is at best outdated or it was just a myth all along.

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