Gilets jaunes banned from protest by Notre Dame as donations get politicized

[EmperorScorpious]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/19/gilets-jaunes-banned-from-protesting-near-notre-dame-in-paris

Anti-government gilets jaunes (yellow vests) protesters will be banned from demonstrating near Paris’s fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral on Saturday, as the police chief warned that any plans to march on the banks of the river Seine near the site were “pure provocation”.

Gilets jaunes demonstrators had pre-planned this Saturday’s street marches before Notre Dame, one of Europe’s great architectural masterpieces, caught fire on Monday night with its spire collapsing and two-thirds of the roof destroyed.

But the huge amount of money pledged by billionaire donors and businesses to restore the gothic cathedral has been seen by some as a sign of the vast inequality between rich and poor in France.

On gilets jaunes roundabout blockades, some protestors told local media that Macron, who promised this week to rebuild the cathedral in what some experts see as an impossibly short five years, was trying to use the Notre Dame fire to create a moment of national unity, when worries among low-income workers were still as acute as before.

[Hilton]

Man, those are some high emotional tensions.
Good luck, France

[John Franklin]

considering that billionaires were able to suddenly foot up hundreds of millions of euros to restore a cathedral when most french people have seen a real and visible decline in their living standards, i don't think i am going to be particularly swayed by the authorities who let things get so bad that it reached this point

it's been half a year and still tens of thousands of french people are protesting and rioting on the streets all over france, makes me think that they haven't done anything to help the people so far (too expensive you see) whereas a cathedral burns down and suddenly they have all the money the world to repair it and its a top priority concern

[EmperorScorpious]

My hope is that, while the Notre Dame does get its needed restoration, the donations by billionaires become a "deer in the headlights" for showcasing just how bad the disparity is in France. I cannot think of a way to avoid seeing the large donations as anything but a "why can't they help the poor too?".

[doomkiwi]

Is there anything stopping Notre Dame from taking what they need for restorations and then donating everything else?

[EmperorScorpious]

Any amount of money they need right now is just estimates.

Really they won't know how much they would have needed until it's finally complete.

[Iknowtoomuch]

I'm pretty sure that's not what "deer in the headlights" means, but ok.