The Yellow Vest Protests in France Have Big International Implications

Image credit: Flickr user NightFlightToVenus CC Commons

A protest movement in France known as the  Gilets Jaunes, or Yellow Vests, has become a political crisis for French President Emmanuel Macron. The protest movement began over a hike in a fuel tax, but has grown into something much more and is now threatening to further weaken President Macron, whose popularity was already sinking in France.

On the line with me to discuss the origins of this movement and its political significance both in France and throughout Europe is Arthur Goldhammer, a senior affiliate with the Center for European Studies at Harvard University. He is also a translator of French works into english. If you are one of the many people who read Thomas Picketty's book Capitalism in the 21st Century, you read Art Goldhammer's translation.

We kick off discussing the origins of this protest movement.  We then have a wider discussion about the roots of Macron's unpopularity in France and the implications of his unpopulari…