Zerohedge, Topic: Holland Heats Up, Belgium Burns As French Yellow Vest Protests Spread Across Europe

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Link: Holland Heats Up, Belgium Burns As French Yellow Vest Protests Spread Across Europe

 Excerpt:

 "So Why Are The Protests Taking Place In Belgium?
France 24 summed up a number of Belgian economic grievances when it writes,
The demonstrations in both countries come from the same sense of struggling to make ends meet every month.
It began, in both countries, with the government increasing the cost of fuel. Belgians, for instance, pay the highest state taxes on diesel in Europe. The French government backed down on the proposed fuel tax increase, and Belgian ministers did the same, announcing the fuel prices would not be index-linked from 2019. But in both countries, the protests have continued.
...
According to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical body, tax-to-GDP ratio rose across Europe in 2017. France tops the list, with tax revenue accounting for 48.4% of GDP, and Belgium follows close behind with a tax-to-GDP ratio of 47.3%.
...
Economist Philippe Defeyt told Belgian media RTBF that while the cost of living has increased in Belgium, so too has the average income – apart from the lowest-earners, who have been squeezed even tighter.
A retired man told RTBF that he receives a pension of €1,350 a month. “I get it on the 23rd of the month. It’s now the 8th and after I’ve paid insurance, rent, energy bills – which cost €150 – I only have €200 left for living expenses,” he said.
A Facebook group for Yellow Vests in Belgium lays out some of their demands to the government: lowering the retirement age, decreasing fuel excise duties, decreasing the cost of electricity and water, the choice of referendums at all levels of legislative decision-making, increasing pensions, improving public services and increasing purchasing power. The average price of electricity has risen €10 in the past year. Protesters describe a general “ras-le-bol fiscal”, or financial despair.
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It’s a similar story in Belgium: in Brussels, salaries are €300 higher than the average salary in the rest of the country. With a capital that also doubles as the capital of Europe, Belgian citizens are frustrated by what they see as their lawmakers’ inability to solve problems closer to home.
One protester gestured to the European institutional buildings behind him while talking to a NBC Euronews reporter. “There, in ‘Europe’, they’re having fun, they’re laughing,” he said. “The people who make the laws are the ones driving us further into the ground. We have empty pockets. We shouldn’t be called the ‘yellow vests’, but the ‘empty pockets’.”"

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