New round of yellow vest violence puts Macron back on the defensive
French president's reform agenda wont be easy to push
Paris — Just when President Emmanuel Macron thought he had regained the upper hand over the yellow vest protest movement with his “great debate“, the latest flare-up of violence reminded the French leader that putting his reform agenda back on track won’t be easy. Town hall meetings across France launched two months ago to defuse the unrest helped Macron reconnect with voters, boosting his popularity and lifting the gloom in the Elysee, even if some participants felt the encounters were a pointless talk shop. But images of burning banks and ransacked restaurants on the famed Champs-Elysees in Paris this past weekend have put Macron back on the defensive — just as he mulls new policies to appease the “yellow vest” protesters. “Saturday’s images of the Champs-Elysees threaten the early signs of appeasement that national debate seemed to have created,” Bernard Sananes of polling institute Elabe said. Organisers of Saturday’s protest called it an ultimatum, seeking to intensify pressure...
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