In all countries, under all governments, protests get organised. The more so if it's a democratic country. When protests happen, they can serve as evidence of the existence of democracy, although by themselves they do not provide a sufficient signal or proof that it really exists.

Not all protests are genuine. Beyond what is publicly said about the reasons for holding them, ulterior reasons or motives could prevail. Similarly, not all protesters or participants in protest rallies are acting in good faith. However, it does happen as well that  in a non-genuine protest, citizens who do participate are protesting in a genuine manner. And in a genuine protest, some of those participating could be doing so for dubious reasons. When acting in good faith (or in a genuine manner)  one is strongly convinced  that matters are being dealt with incorrectly, triggering a need to openly demonstrate against what is going on.

Public authorities can ignore protests, attack them, adapt their behaviour in response and/or surrender to them. Decisions about how to respond to protests are not easy. The worst mistake in a democracy is for the authorities to consider all protests and all protesters as being in bad faith.

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THE CENTRE

How difficult it has become to disagree with the conclusion that the political centre in the democracies of the West seems to be disappearing! One has only to note what's been happening in Germany, Italy and France. The centre of the big parties, from the social democratic left to the demochristian right is being progressively squeezed out. In Germany, the Alternative for Germany (AFD) has overtaken the demochristians in many communities. The social democrats are continually losing ground. The same has happened in France, where the socialist party that Mitterrand rebuilt has turned into what looks like a damp rag. Meanwhile, the remains of the Gaullist movement are being swallowed by the Le Pen party.

I was never impressed by the centrist parties or the "centrist" tendencies on left and right. But it could be that their strength drained away mostly because when the "traditional" parties all gravitated towards the centre, the choice that they had presented before evaporated. So voters ended up migrating towards the "extremes".

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THE DIESEL CRISIS

The ongoing increases in the price of diesel have become the most important threat as of now to price stability world-wide. The product is widely employed in systems that cover essential stages of consumption and production. Price increases for diesel feed into and impact a very wide range of products and services. European countries will be among the worst hit.

Once again, it's being made apparent that the Trump administration has adopted and maintained the wrong approaches in its policies which were supposedly intended to bring the US back to the predominance it once enjoyed. True, the US under Trump has been experiencing a sustained economic growth rate that is much more than satisfactory. But in the meantime, the uncertainties that American policies have injected into the global system are multiplying the economic and social difficulties of countries considered as US allies. Perhaps the diesel crisis is the strongest indicator of this. Which doesn't look good for the US itself.