I think the refugee bullshit is just the fulcrum for the whole thing in the eyes of the media. Buncha French protesting with a racist underlying bias is easy to believe. I think in reality what pushed them over the edge was the fuel tax increase. People in the city who don't need to commute are hardly fucked by it, so you have all the French rednecks hauling their happy ass to work every day and paying someone else's salary while doing it. Supposedly they feel singled out and basically the whole north vs south tax allotment argument of days gone by comes into play. I'm proud of them none the less, their government is fucking obtuse for provoking them.