Les Gilets Jaunes
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 6 December 2018
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In France a wave of protests has brought the country to a standstill in recent weeks. The original cause of the anger - the government's plan to raise the rate of tax on diesel - has now disappeared. President Macron responded this week to the mood in the country by withdrawing the tax, due to be introduced next year. The question now is whether that will temper the anger of the Gilets Jaunes, the protesters who take their name from the hi-viz vest that every French driver must carry with them in their vehicle. The protesters form an amorphous movement without leaders and their demands are many and various. President Macron is being criticised as much for his style and tactics as his policy. Where does France go from here? With Sophie Pedder of The Economist, the geographer Christophe Guilluy, the pollster Bruno Jeanbart, the writer Jane Weston-Vauclair and Professor Philippe Marliere of University College London.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:05.8 | Welcome to the briefing room with me, David Aronovich. |
| 0:08.8 | Step inside and find out what you need to know about the issues that matter |
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| 0:26.5 | on your podcast provider. This week, we're talking about yellow vests. In French, |
| 0:31.8 | they're known rather more elegantly as Les Gilles-Jones, the people who've taken to the streets |
| 0:36.7 | of France in protest at President Macron. |
| 0:40.6 | Our question is simple. |
| 0:42.1 | What's so past, |
| 0:42.8 | in France? |
| 0:45.0 | To be a warrior, |
| 0:48.6 | we're in a cabalero, |
| 0:51.9 | marcho, |
| 0:53.8 | marcho, let's have been in the songs of angry men, it's the song all over France. It started with a planned tax |
| 1:13.2 | increase that would have raised the price of diesel. And then the protest arrived in Paris and |
| 1:25.7 | turned violent. |
| 1:34.5 | Suddenly, President Macron was facing a political crisis just 18 months after being elected, |
| 1:41.9 | promising a new beginning. It's all gone rather miserable, rather fast. So what's going on in France? |
| 1:44.6 | Step into the briefing room to find out. |
... |
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