PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron scrapped a fuel tax rise Wednesday amid fears of new violence, after weeks of nationwide protests and the worst rioting in Paris in decades.
Protesters celebrated the victory, but some said Macron’s surrender came too late and is no longer enough to quell the mounting anger at the president, whom they consider out of touch with the problems of ordinary people.
Macron decided Wednesday to “get rid” of the tax planned for next year, an official in the president’s office told The Associated Press. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told lawmakers the tax is no longer included in the 2019 budget.
The decision has ramifications beyond France, since the fuel tax rise was part of Macron’s efforts to wean France off fossil fuels in order to reduce greenhouse gases and help slow climate change. Its withdrawal is both a blow to broader efforts to fight climate change and a warning to other world leaders trying to do the same thing.
The “yellow vest” protests began Nov. 17 over the government plan to raise taxes on diesel and gasoline, but by the time Macron bowed to three weeks of violence and abandoned the new fuel tax, protesters were demanding much more. Many workers in France are angry over the combination of low wages, high taxes and high unemployment that have left many people struggling financially.
On Tuesday, the government agreed to suspend the fuel tax rise for six months. But instead of appeasing the protesters, it spurred other groups to join in, hoping for concessions of their own. The protests took on an even bigger dimension Wednesday with trade unions and farmers vowing to join the fray.
Police warned of potential violence during demonstrations in Paris on Saturday, with one small security forces union threatening a strike.
So after nightfall Wednesday, as parliament debated the 2019 budget, Macron’s government suddenly gave in.
“I have no problem with admitting that on such or such question we could have done differently, that if there is such a level of anger ... it’s because we still have a lot of things to improve,” the prime minister told legislators.
Philippe said “the tax is now abandoned” in the 2019 budget, and the government is “ready for dialogue.” The budget can be renegotiated through the year, but given the scale of the recent protests, Macron is unlikely to revive the added fuel tax idea anytime soon.
Jacline Mouraud, one of the self-proclaimed spokespeople for the disparate yellow vest movement, told the AP that Macron’s concession “comes much too late, unfortunately.”
“It’s on the right path, but in my opinion it will not fundamentally change the movement,” she said.
Three weeks of protests have caused four deaths, injured hundreds and littered central Paris with burned cars and shattered windows.
The sweep of the protests and their wide support by citizens of all political stripes has shocked Macron’s government. In the last few days, Paris saw the worst anti-government riot since 1968, French students set fires outside high schools to protest a new university application system, small business owners blocked roads to protest high taxes, and retirees marched to protest the president’s perceived elitism.
Macron’s popularity has slumped to a new low since the demonstrations began. The former investment banker, who has pushed pro-business economic reforms to make France more competitive globally, is accused of being the “president of the rich” and of being estranged from the working classes.
On Wednesday, France’s largest farmers union said it will launch anti-government protests next week, after trucking unions called for a rolling strike.
Trade unions so far have not played a role in the yellow vest protest movement but are now trying to capitalize on growing public anger. A joint statement from the CGT and the FO trucking unions called for action Sunday night to protest a cut in overtime rates.
The FNSEA farmers union said it would fight to help French farmers earn a better income but would not officially be joining forces with the “yellow vests” — protesters wearing the high-visibility vests that motorists are required to keep in their cars.
French police have cleared most of the fuel depots that protesters blocked earlier in the week, but fuel shortages still hit parts of France on Wednesday, affecting hundreds of gas stations.
Demonstrators also blocked toll booths, letting drivers pass without paying, to press demands that ranged from higher incomes and pensions to the dissolution of the National Assembly, France’s parliament.
At Tolbiac University in downtown Paris, students took over a school building and classes were canceled.
“We need taxes, but they are not properly redistributed,” protester Thomas Tricottet told BFM television.
The high school students’ FIDL union called for “massive” protests Thursday and urged France’s education minister to step down.
One student was injured during protests at a high school in Saint-Jean-de-Braye in north-central France. BFM said he was shot in the head with a rubber bullet. Julien Guiller, a spokesman for the regional school administration, told the AP that the student was expected to survive.
Until he scrapped the fuel tax rise, Macron’s actions after returning from the G-20 summit in Argentina had done little to persuade protesters that he was listening to their concerns.
He has refrained from speaking publicly about the protests and has largely remained in his palace. On Tuesday night, he was jeered as he traveled to a regional government headquarters that was torched by protesters over the weekend.
One activist said Wednesday that he fears more deaths if Saturday’s yellow vest demonstration in Paris goes ahead and urged Macron to speak out and calm the nation.
“If not there will be chaos,” said Christophe Chalencon.
Chalencon, a 52-year-old blacksmith from southern France, told the AP the French public needs Macron to “admit he made a mistake, with simple words ... that touch the guts and heart of the French.”
In a disparaging tweet, US President Donald Trump claimed that Macron’s decision Tuesday to delay the gas tax hike showed that the French leader doesn’t believe in the 2015 Paris global climate accord.
The Trump tweet came as thousands of climate experts were meeting in Poland to work out national responsibilities in the fight to reduce emissions and slow global warming.
Macron scraps French fuel tax hike amid violent protests
Macron scraps French fuel tax hike amid violent protests
- Many workers in France are angry over the combination of low wages, high taxes and high unemployment that have left many people struggling financially
- Instead of appeasing the protesters, Macron's decision has spurred other groups to join in, hoping for concessions of their own
US to revoke all South Sudan visas over failure to accept repatriation of citizens: Rubio
- South Sudan had failed to respect the principle that every country must accept the return of its citizens in a timely manner, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said
- Washington “will be prepared to review these actions when South Sudan is in full cooperation,” he added
WASHINGTON: The US said on Saturday it would revoke all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders over South Sudan’s failure to accept the return of its repatriated citizens, at a time when many in Africa fear that country could return to civil war.
US President Donald Trump’s administration has taken aggressive measures to ramp up immigration enforcement, including the repatriation of people deemed to be in the US illegally.
The administration has warned that countries that do not swiftly take back their citizens will face consequences, including visa sanctions or tariffs.
South Sudan had failed to respect the principle that every country must accept the return of its citizens in a timely manner when another country, including the US, seeks to remove them, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.
“Effective immediately, the United States Department of State is taking actions to revoke all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders and prevent further issuance to prevent entry into the United States by South Sudanese passport holders,” Rubio said.
“We will be prepared to review these actions when South Sudan is in full cooperation,” Rubio said.
It is time for South Sudan’s transitional government to “stop taking advantage of the United States,” he said.
South Sudan’s embassy in Washington did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
African Union mediators arrived in South Sudan’s capital Juba this week for talks aimed at averting a new civil war in the country after its First Vice President Riek Machar was placed under house arrest last week.
South Sudan President Salva Kiir’s government has accused Machar, a longtime rival who led rebel forces during a 2013-18 war that killed hundreds of thousands, of trying to stir up a new rebellion.
Machar’s detention followed weeks of fighting in the northern Upper Nile state between the military and the White Army militia. Machar’s forces were allied with the White Army during the civil war but deny any current links.
The 2013-18 war was contested largely along ethnic lines, with fighters from the Dinka, the country’s largest group, lining up behind Kiir, and those from the Nuer, the second-largest group, supporting Machar.
Panama wants ‘respectful’ ties with US amid canal threats
- The United States and China are the two biggest users of the Panama Canal, which handles five percent of global maritime trade, giving it vital economic and geostrategic importance
PANAMA CITY: Panama hopes to maintain a “respectful” relationship with the United States, even as President Donald Trump has repeated threats to retake the Panama Canal, Foreign Minister Javier Martinez-Acha said Saturday.
His comments came ahead of a visit next week by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a trip made more urgent against the backdrop of Trump’s threats and his allegations of Chinese interference in the canal.
“We discussed illegal migration, organized crime, drug trafficking and (other issues),” Martinez-Acha wrote on X of a call Friday with US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau. “It was a cordial and constructive exchange.”
“I reiterated that all cooperation from Panama will take place under the framework of our constitution, our laws, and the Canal Neutrality Treaty,” he wrote. “Relations with the US must remain respectful, transparent and mutually beneficial.”
The US State Department said Landau had “expressed gratitude for Panama’s cooperation in halting illegal immigration and working with the United States to secure a nearly 98 percent decrease in illegal immigration through the Darien jungle,” an arduous path northward followed by many migrants.
The two officials also discussed the sale last month by the Hong Kong company CK Hutchison to giant US asset manager BlackRock of its concession in ports at either end of the Panama Canal, Martinez-Acha added.
Panama’s comptroller has been conducting an audit of Hutchison since January.
Landau “recognized Panama’s actions in curbing malign Chinese Communist Party influence,” the State Department said.
The deal was set to close on April 2 but has been held up as Chinese regulators pursue an investigation.
The United States and China are the two biggest users of the Panama Canal, which handles five percent of global maritime trade, giving it vital economic and geostrategic importance. It was inaugurated by the United States in 1914 and has been in Panamanian hands since 1999.
Tens of thousands of Spaniards march across the country to protest the growing housing crisis
- The housing crisis has hit particularly hard in Spain, where there is a strong tradition of home ownership and scant public housing for rent
BARCELONA, Spain: Tens of thousands of Spaniards marched in protests held across the European country on Saturday in anger over high housing costs with no relief in sight.
Government authorities said that 15,000 marched in Madrid, while organizers said 10 times that many took to the streets of the capital. In Barcelona, the city hall said 12,000 people took part in the protest, while organizers claimed over 100,000 did.
The massive demonstration of social angst that is a major concern for Spain’s left-wing government was organized by housing activists and backed by Spain’s main labor unions.
The housing crisis has hit particularly hard in Spain, where there is a strong tradition of home ownership and scant public housing for rent. Rents have been driven up by increased demand. Buying a home has become unaffordable for many, with market pressures and speculation driving up prices, especially in big cities and coastal areas.
A generation of young people say they have to stay with their parents or spend big just to share an apartment, with little chance of saving enough to one day purchase a home. High housing costs mean even those with traditionally well-paying jobs are struggling to make ends meet.
“I’m living with four people and still, I allocate 30 or 40 percent of my salary to rent,” said Mari Sánchez, a 26-year-old lawyer in Madrid. “That doesn’t allow me to save. That doesn’t allow me to do anything. It doesn’t even allow me to buy a car. That’s my current situation, and the one many young people are living through.”
Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez said on X that “I share the demand of the numerous people who have marched today: that homes are for living in and not for speculating.”
Lack of public housing
The average rent in Spain has almost doubled in the last 10 years. The price per square meter rose from 7.2 euros ($7.90) in 2014 to 13 euros last year, according to real estate website Idealista. The increase is bigger in Madrid and Barcelona.
Incomes have failed to keep up, especially for younger people in a country with chronically high unemployment.
Spain does not have the public housing that other European nations have invested in to cushion struggling renters from a market that is pricing them out.
Spain is near the bottom end of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries with public housing for rent making up under 2 percent of all available housing. The OECD average is 7 percent. In France it is is 14 percent, Britain 16 percent and the Netherlands 34 percent.
Angry renters point to instances of international hedge funds buying up properties, often with the aim of renting them to foreign tourists. The question has become so politically charged that Barcelona’s city government pledged last year to phase out all its 10,000 permits for short-term rentals, many of them advertised on platforms like Airbnb, by 2028.
Marchers in Madrid on Saturday chanted “Get Airbnb out of our neighborhoods” and held up signs against short-term rentals. In Barcelona, someone carried a sign reading “I am not leaving, vampire,” apparently in a message to would-be real estate speculator seeking to drive him out of his home.
Authorities under pressure
The central government’s biggest initiative for curbing the cost of housing is a rent cap mechanism it has offered to regional authorities, based on a price index established by the housing ministry. The government says the measure has slightly reduced rents in Barcelona, one of the few areas it has been applied.
But government measures have not proven enough to stop protests over the past two years. Experts say the situation likely won’t improve anytime soon.
“This is not the first, nor will it be the last, (housing protest) given the severity of the housing crisis,” Ignasi Martí, professor with the Esade business school and head of its Dignified Housing Observatory, said in an email.
“We saw this with the financial crisis (of 2008-2012) when (a protest movement) lasted until there was a certain economic recovery and a reduction in the social tension,” Marti added.
Protesters tee off against Trump and Musk in ‘Hands Off!’ rallies across the US
- Over 1,200 “Hands Off!” demonstrations were planned by more than 150 groups
- Trump chided for “tearing this country apart” as he goes golfing amid tariff turmoil
Opponents of President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk rallied across the US on Saturday to protest the administration’s actions on government downsizing, the economy, human rights and other issues.
More than 1,200 “Hands Off!” demonstrations were planned by more than 150 groups, including civil rights organizations, labor unions, LBGTQ+ advocates, veterans and elections activists. The protest sites included the National Mall in Washington, D.C., state capitols and other locations in all 50 states.
Protesters assailed the Trump administration’s moves to fire thousands of federal workers, close Social Security Administration field offices, effectively shutter entire agencies, deport immigrants, scale back protections for transgender people and cut federal funding for health programs.
Musk, a Trump adviser who owns Tesla, SpaceX and the social media platform X, has played a key role in government downsizing as the head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency. He says he is saving taxpayers billions of dollars.
Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign advocacy group, spoke at the Washington protest, criticizing the Trump administration’s treatment of the LBGTQ+ community.
“The attacks that we’re seeing, they’re not just political. They are personal, y’all,” she said. “They’re trying to ban our books, they’re slashing HIV prevention funding, they’re criminalizing our doctors, our teachers, our families and our lives. This is Donald Trump’s America and I don’t want it y’all. We don’t want this America, y’all. We want the America we deserve, where dignity, safety and freedom belong not to some of us, but to all of us.”
Thousands of people marched in New York City’s midtown Manhattan. In Massachusetts thousands more gathered on Boston Common holding signs including “Hands off our democracy,” “Hands off our Social Security” and “Diversity equity inclusion makes America strong. Hands off!”
In Ohio, hundreds rallied in the rain at the Statehouse in Columbus.
Roger Broom, 66, a retiree from Delaware County, Ohio, said at the Columbus rally that he used to be a Reagan Republican but has been turned off by Trump.
“He’s tearing this country apart,” Broom said. “It’s just an administration of grievances.”
Hundreds of people also demonstrated in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, a few miles from Trump’s golf course in Jupiter, where he spent the morning at the club’s Senior Club Championship. People lined both sides of PGA Drive, encouraging cars to honk and chanting slogans against Trump.
Archer Moran from Port St. Lucie, Florida, said, “They need to keep their hands off of our Social Security.”
“The list of what they need to keep their hands off of is too long,” Moran said. “And it’s amazing how soon these protests are happening since he’s taken office.”
The president plans to go golfing again Sunday, according to the White House.
Asked about the protests, the White House said in a statement that “President Trump’s position is clear: he will always protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for eligible beneficiaries. Meanwhile, the Democrats’ stance is giving Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare benefits to illegal aliens, which will bankrupt these programs and crush American seniors.”
Activists have staged nationwide demonstrations against Trump or Musk multiple times since Trump returned to office. But the opposition movement has yet to produce a mass mobilization like the Women’s March in 2017, which brought thousands of women to Washington, D.C., after Trump’s first inauguration, or the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that erupted in multiple cities after George Floyd’s killing in 2020.
In Charlotte, North Carolina, protesters said they were supporting a variety of causes, from Social Security and education to immigration and women’s reproductive rights.
“Regardless of your party, regardless of who you voted for, what’s going on today, what’s happening today is abhorrent,” said Britt Castillo, 35, of Charlotte. “It’s disgusting and as broken as our current system might be, the way that the current administration is going about trying to fix things — it is not the way to do it. They’re not listening to the people.”
“All they’re doing is making sure that they have a parachute for them and their rich friends, and everybody else here that lives here — that makes the gears turn for this country — are just screwed at the end of the day,” she said.
US starts collecting Trump’s new 10 percent tariff, smashing global trade norms
- Trump’s tariffs impact global markets, causing $5 trillion loss in S&P 500 value
- Exemptions include crude oil, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors
WASHINGTON/JUPITER, Florida: US customs agents began collecting President Donald Trump’s unilateral 10 percent tariff on all imports from many countries on Saturday, with higher levies on goods from 57 larger trading partners due to start next week.
The initial 10 percent “baseline” tariff paid by US importers took effect at US seaports, airports and customs warehouses at 12:01 a.m. ET (0401 GMT), ushering in Trump’s full rejection of the post-World War Two system of mutually agreed tariff rates.
“This is the single biggest trade action of our lifetime,” said Kelly Ann Shaw, a trade lawyer at Hogan Lovells and former White House trade adviser during Trump’s first term.
Shaw told a Brookings Institution event on Thursday that she expected the tariffs to evolve over time as countries seek to negotiate lower rates. “This is a pretty seismic and significant shift in the way that we trade with every country on earth,” she added.
Trump’s Wednesday tariff announcement shook global stock markets, wiping out $5 trillion in value for S&P 500 index companies by Friday’s close, a record two-day decline. Driven by recession fears, prices for oil and commodities plunged, while investors fled to the safety of government bonds.
Among the countries first hit with the 10 percent tariff were Australia, Britain, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina and Saudi Arabia despite their having goods trade deficits with the US last year. White House officials have said many countries would run larger deficits with the US if their policies were fairer.
A US Customs and Border Protection bulletin provided a 51-day grace period for cargoes loaded or in transit to the US before 12:01 a.m. ET Saturday. These cargoes need to arrive by May 27 to avoid the 10 percent duty.
Trump’s higher “reciprocal” tariff rates of 11 percent to 50 percent are due to take effect on Wednesday at 12:01 a.m. ET. European Union imports will face a 20 percent tariff, while Chinese goods will be hit with a 34 percent tariff, bringing Trump’s total new levies on China to 54 percent.
Beijing on Saturday said, “The market has spoken” in rejecting Trump’s tariffs. China applied a slew of countermeasures, including extra levies of 34 percent on all US goods and export curbs on some rare earth minerals.
“China has been hit much harder than the USA, not even close,” Trump said on Saturday on social media. “THIS IS AN ECONOMIC REVOLUTION, AND WE WILL WIN. HANG TOUGH, it won’t be easy, but the end result will be historic.”
Shortly after posting the comment, Trump was spotted arriving at his Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida, reading a New York Post article covering China’s retaliation to US tariffs and the stock market fall.
Israel, Taiwan, Vietnam
“A trade war is in no one’s interest. We must stand united and resolute to protect our citizens and our businesses,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in post on X.
Some world leaders hoped to strike a deal with Trump and avert economic fallout while others weighed countermeasures.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to visit the White House on Monday, sources said, to discuss the new 17 percent tariff on Israel. Media reported Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba of Japan, which faces a 24 percent levy, was seeking a telephone conversation with Trump.
Vietnam, which benefited from the shift of US supply chains away from China after Trump’s first-term trade war with Beijing, agreed on Friday to discuss a deal with the US after Trump announced a 46 percent tariff on Vietnamese imports.
The head of Taiwan’s National Security Council was in Washington for talks that were expected to include the tariffs, a source said. Taiwan President Lai Ching-te huddled with tech executives on Saturday to discuss how to respond to the 32 percent duty imposed on its products.
Italian Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti warned on Saturday against imposing retaliatory tariffs on the United States, saying at a business forum near Milan that doing so could cause damage.
US billionaire Elon Musk, a close Trump adviser, told a political event in Italy by video on Saturday that he hoped to see complete freedom of trade between the United States and Europe, which he described as “a zero tariff situation.”
Canada and Mexico were exempt from Trump’s latest duties but still face a 25 percent tariff imposed recently on goods that do not comply with rules of origin under a North America trade accord.
While Trump’s order exempted 1,000 product categories from the new tariffs such pharmaceuticals, uranium and semiconductors, the administration is considering new duties on some of them.
