Social media is predicting a “yellow Saturday” full of rage across the entire country. As a sign of the times, virtual mobilization now acts as a thermometer for public opinion. Armies typing on keyboards are winning a first media battle against the government quite quickly.
Political news is caught in volatility and excitement. Yesterday’s truth is no longer today’s, and yesterday already seems like an eternity ago. A few weeks ago, everyone was eager to appear prominently in photos of the “climate marches.” Now it is fashionable to condemn an environmental tax regime that was recently elevated to the status of a sacred rule.
Historians looking back on our era will undoubtedly highlight an apparent paradox. Are we ecological in theoretical principles but resistant in practical application? It seems just as easy to mobilize for climate issues for future generations as it is to rally against measures that attempt to preserve our planet.
The current government is stumbling once again over two obstacles: social justice and the diversity of territories. The issue does not lie in the principle of an environmental tax but in a method that disregards the absolute necessity of social justice and neglects the essential consideration of the diversity of territories. The French are neither the “vanguard of the ecological cause” nor the “Gauls resistant to change”!
Environmental taxation is an absolute necessity. But for it to be accepted, taxation must be fair and adapted.
Dr. Hervé CAEL
