And then burning down the school.

Shit, I pretty much never attach my crosses to the wall.

There were rioters among the protesters.

I think what you’re saying is that fediverse is a better solution but it will not scale and I agree.

They have 0 interest in doing it and other parties have 0 interest in helping them do it.

That’s not excusing them. That’s explaining why thinking that Macron will dismantle the system he built months before elections is a fantasy.

Because I know more or less how presidential system in France works.

Yeah, that’s a nice fantasy.

Yes, politicians often use lame duck period to pass unpopular laws, they don’t have to worry about winning elections anymore. It’s completely different than changing the entire system. They have 0 interest in doing it and other parties have 0 interest in helping them do it.

That’s some fantasy politics you’re playing there. First, big reforms like that are not done in a matter of months, specially in the middle of an election campaign. Second, Macron is not going to make reforms the left wants, why would he? He could look for some compromise but why would other parties help him do any reforms now if they are so close from taking over and doing the reforms they actually want to see? Third, Macron’s party has zero interest in helping the next government with anything. Macron created the system he wanted to have, why would he help his rivals dismantle it now?

The implication is that the violence will extend to the people in charge if things don’t change.

To Macron? Who will no longer be president in May? Yeah, I’m sure he will fix everything in his lame duck period because he’s scared.

I would love to know how those people think destroying infrastructure will make things better for them. Especially with presidential elections in May.

I knew someone will say this…

The money is there but you can’t divert it without changing the tax system and passing a new budget. Those are the major reforms I mentioned that lame duck president will not do. Without them they would just be adding to their massive debt.

Just read interesting interview about the situation (in Spanish and probably paywalled).

TLDR: Macron in a Lame duck president now. Next presidential elections are in May and he can’t run again. He doesn’t have the time or mandate to start major reforms now.

France has the biggest debt in EU. They have the 3rd highest debt-to-GDP after Italy and Greece. They have worse debt-to-GDP ratio than Spain now.

While people are destroying private and public property causing billions in damages there is simply no one who will listen to them. There’s no money in the budget to simply increase funding for education or lower gasoline prices, the debt is already overwhelming them. No one knows who will win the next elections so the current government has little interest in starting major reforms now. All they can do is to send police to the streets and try to control the situation (which they are failing to do, clearly).

The protests have very little chance to achieve anything. Macron will be out in May so how can he even promise anything to the protesters? The protests are mostly pointless. They will most likely just polarize the vote before elections pushing people to support the extremes.

Now that’s a live streamed firing squad I would watch.

(Just kidding, death penalty is wrong.)

That’s fair, I guess I’m overly sensitive about the “EU” vs “EU members” difference. Sometimes it’s very important, in this case not so much.

What is EU doing to get rid of MS? I know individual countries are rolling out alternative tools for their public administration, but EU? I haven’t heard anything.

EU supports some open source projects, not just the ones competing with MS tools. Most projects promoted as “European alternative to X” are private, EU based companies, not backed by EU in any way. I might be wrong but I think EU is not in the software development game at all. They try to regulate US companies and they try to create the right conditions for private companies in EU to grow but they don’t work on any replacements themselves. And I think it would be weird for EU to do it. Individual countries should be doing it.

That’s fair.

Yes, but if he had tourist visa he would still be denied this asylum and deported, right? Tourist visa might help him stay in EU illegally but it would not help him get asylum.

Yes, average Russians must face the consequences of the war, there’s no point in shielding them. But this move will cost EU tourist money so it’s down to cost-benefit estimates.

As for other reasons, spies will have multiple passports. Russian oligarchs are sanctioned already. Russia is recruiting people inside EU and Ukraine for terrorist attacks, they don’t have to enter EU at all to do it.

Do you need tourist visa to ask for asylum? All the people crossing border in Ceuta ask for asylums without visas. Once you crossed the border it doesn’t matter if you have a visa or not, you can request asylum. And I think Russia/Belarus/Macedonia/whatever will not stop you from leaving if you don’t have a EU visa. You will be able to reach EU and as for asylum without a visa.