Are the French hit especially hard by fuel taxes?

[Lafayette]

From the Guardian: Are the French hit especially hard by fuel taxes?

Short answer: No, not more than some other European countries.

Long answer (click above link to see EU country-cost graphics) - excerpt:

Despite a backdrop of riots against high fuel levies in France, European commission data shows that taxes on all petrol products have actually fallen in the last two years across the euro-zone. The level has fallen from almost 70% of the cost for consumers at the pump to 60.9% at the end of November. In France, it is a similar story, with taxes on fuel (before the increased levy on diesel kicks in) accounting for a smaller proportion of total prices than they did at the start of Emmanuel Macron’s presidency.

The data shows the Netherlands has the highest tax on unleaded petrol in the EU, at 68% of the cost at the pump, while Bulgaria is the lowest at 51%. France’s fuel taxes – 64% on unleaded and 59% on diesel – are among the highest in the EU, but compare evenly with those in the UK.

“It’s often said taxes on diesel and petrol have never been higher than today,” said ... the executive director of Transport & Environment, a non-governmental organisation. “The reality is that, in real terms, fuel taxes are about as high now as they were 20 years ago.”

They are at the same level as Sweden, and - ok, it's pretty cold up there - but the Swedes are not wrecking downtown Stockholm. Yes, the Italians are also at the same price level, and Rome IS warmer than Paris, but neither are they wrecking the Colosseum.

Only in France are some young nerds causing damage that is reckoned at more than 3M€. About three hundred will be passing before a judge this week ...

 

[EMNofSeattle]

From the Guardian: Are the French hit especially hard by fuel taxes?

Short answer: No, not more than some other European countries.

Long answer (click above link to see EU country-cost graphics) - excerpt:


They are at the same level as Sweden, and - ok, it's pretty cold up there - but the Swedes are not wrecking downtown Stockholm. Yes, the Italians are also at the same price level, and Rome IS warmer than Paris, but neither are they wrecking the Colosseum.

Only in France are some young nerds causing damage that is reckoned at more than 3M€. About three hundred will be passing before a judge this week ...

They should really be demanding that taxes account for 10 to 20 percent like in the US.

Also they should self flagellate for not voting for Marine Le Pen

 

[Litwin]

From the Guardian: Are the French hit especially hard by fuel taxes?

Short answer: No, not more than some other European countries.

Long answer (click above link to see EU country-cost graphics) - excerpt:


They are at the same level as Sweden, and - ok, it's pretty cold up there - but the Swedes are not wrecking downtown Stockholm. Yes, the Italians are also at the same price level, and Rome IS warmer than Paris, but neither are they wrecking the Colosseum.

Only in France are some young nerds causing damage that is reckoned at more than 3M€. About three hundred will be passing before a judge this week ...

its a putlers game, gru/kgb fuel the protests in France

 

[Lafayette]

They should really be demanding that taxes account for 10 to 20 percent like in the US.

Which is the kind of mental blindness that invades the US.

Yes, we pay higher taxes here. But we have:
*A National Health System that is nearly free, gratis and for nothing. It does not cost an arm and a leg as in the US. Moreover, it is the reason we the lifespan in Europe is four years more than in the US.
*Free Postsecondary Education that costs a modest fee of more-or-less than $1000 a year (plus room&board). As the world moves out of the Industrial Age into the Information Age, that "investment" will pay-back quadruple-fold ...

We Yanks in America are blind, blind, blind to the above two key Government Services that impact directly the way we live and how well we live.

Frankly, I for one could really care less. I meet a LOT of yanks here in Europe, and nary a one complains about "enormous taxation".

Also they should self flagellate for not voting for Marine Le Pen

It is highly unlikely that Marine will be around much longer. She scammed the EU when personnel from her party supposedly worked in the EU-parliament (of which she is a member) in Strasbourg. But they actually were working for her political office in Paris. That is a no-no in EU-regulations ...

 

[Chagos]

What started out as a (purported) discontent over fuel prices was and is a general discontent over all sorts of austerity. With the "general" applying more to the discontent but not so much to the French people overall.

As such, unless you happened to be at the Champs Elysée last weekend, as a Parisian you wouldn't have been treated to the sight of any chaos at all but have learned of it solely from the TV. Over 90 % of Paris having been peaceful and devoid of any disruption whatsoever.

But protests that are supposed to garner attention are of course best conducted in locations that find focus anyway, it's a proven method of making the number of protesters look far larger than it actually is.

In all of this it should also not be forgotten that the small but consistently stable number of "chaotics" will jump on any bus that affords them the opportunity of going violently destructive. With that group ranging from radical right to radical left and gleefully closing ranks whenever seeing a chance of "having a good time", irrespective of what current issue they use as an excuse.

Yet comparing this current brouhaha to the riots of 1968 (as some media and other talking heads in France seem prone to do) shows those doing that as not yet even having been around in 1968.