Yellow Vests Cause International Incident

For those people who still believe that the so-called Yellow Vest movement - the Gilets Jaunes of French origin - is a benign grassroots people’s crusade with no political alignment, the moment of reality came today after it was made all too clear that the movement had been hijacked by the far-right.

Macron - recalled Ambassador

The BBC has reported “France has warned Italian Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio not to interfere in the country's politics, after he met French ‘yellow-vest’ protesters.

‘This new provocation is unacceptable between neighbouring countries and partners at the heart of the EU,’ the French foreign ministry said. Mr Di Maio, leader of the populist Five Star Movement, met two leaders of the anti-government protests on Tuesday”.

But the reality is that the situation is already far worse than mere disagreement, as Jean Quatremer has told: “La France rappelle son ambassadeur à Rome après la rencontre, sur le territoire français et sans accord de Paris, entre @luigidimaio, leader du @M5S_Europa, et le gilet jaune Christophe Chalançon (qui souhaite un coup d’Etat militaire). Une crise sans précédent dans l’UE”. Anyone need a translation?

France has recalled its ambassador to Rome after the Italian Deputy PM met a Yellow Vest delegation on French soil that included someone who wants a military coup. Anyone that senior in the Italian - or indeed any Government - having meetings in another country should be at least notifying the country concerned first.

Worse, those Italian deputy PMs appear to be trying to interfere in the upcoming European Parliament elections: “Salvini has said [Emmanuel] Macron was a ‘terrible’ French president and urged French voters not to back his La République En Marche party in the European vote, while Di Maio last week accused France of impoverishing Africa and bringing on the migration crisis” as the Guardian has reported.

Di Maio - a clown trying to destabilise another country

Small wonder that this is described as an unprecedented crisis for the whole of the European Union. And there’s the rub: street protest and solidarity among those who feel themselves disadvantaged by tax changes and rising prices is not what happened near Paris when Luigi Di Maio met the Gilets Jaunes recently.

While the likes of Andrew Neil pretend that an electoral impasse in Germany is the greatest crisis to hit that country since the late 1940s, and a variety of Westminster bubble occupants try to persuade themselves that Brexit will have much effect on the integrity of the European Union, what the clowns now in power in Italy are up to right now really is, as Quatremer put it, “Une crise sans précédent dans l’UE”.

However the yellow vest movement started out, it is ending up being taken over by the far right. The rhetoric of Christophe Chalençon (see his Facebook page HERE) covers the same ground as many of the far right in the UK - accusations of state and media corruption, claiming the other lot are the thugs, and yet greater claims of popular support.

Chalençon has proclaimed “Excellent.... Macron destabilized….!!! Strongly meetings with Putin and Trump!” I’ll leave the nuance and translation to others.

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