yellow vests Strasbourg April 27 2019
© AFP / Patrick HertzogProtesters take part in an anti-government demonstration called by the "Yellow Vest" (gilets jaunes) movement in Strasbourg, eastern France, on April 27, 2019.
Unrelenting Yellow Vest activists have marched in Paris and other French cities for the 24th straight weekend, just days after Emmanuel Macron tried to placate the protest movement with promises of lower taxes.

The demonstrators who assembled in Paris, Toulouse and Strasbourg on Saturday appear to signal that despite the French president's recent concessions to the group, the Yellow Vest movement is alive and well.



Oh Thursday, Macron held the first major press conference of his two-year presidency, in which he announced that he wanted to implement "significant" income tax cuts.


Comment: Just think about that; it's the first time in TWO YEARS he has deigned to have a press conference.


The televised conference, however, was not well received among those who have turned out week after week to demonstrate against Macron's business-friendly austerity measures.




AFP, after interviewing a dozen Yellow Vests in the south of France about their opinion of the press conference, reported that activists thought Macron's olive branch was "rubbish."


Jérémy Clément, regularly cited as a spokesperson for the movement, told the news agency that "the President has understood our claims, but he hasn't provided the answers to them."
yellow vests Strasbourg April 2019
© AFP / Patrick HertzogProtesters march with placards reading 'RIC' (Citizens Initiated Referendum) as they take part in an anti-government demonstration called by the "Yellow Vest" (gilets jaunes) movement in Strasbourg, eastern France, on April 27, 2019.
The Yellow Vest (Gilets Jaunes) protests began last November as a rally against a proposed gas tax. Now an international movement, French Yellow Vest activists have assembled for 24 Saturdays in a row as of this week. Some demonstrations have led to violent clashes with police, resulting in serious injuries.


Comment: The majority of the injuries have been inflicted by French police, whose responses to the largely non-violent protests have been barbaric:



Macron has already offered €10 billion ($11.1bn) in tax cuts and income subsidies for the working poor and pensioners, back in December, but the pledge did not slow down the burgeoning protest movement.