Macron Gives In To The Yellow Vests

The French president’s reform plans are in peril after violent protests

- Carol Matlack

Emmanuel Macron thought voters wanted a leader who remained above the fray—“to preside, not govern,” as he put it during his 2017 campaign. Now, after three weeks of nationwide demonstrations and violent clashes in the heart of Paris, the 40-year-old French president has been swept up in the fray, and he risks losing his ability to deliver the economic and political renewal he promised.

On Dec. 4, Macron suspended a planned fuel tax hike that sparked the Gilets Jaunes, or Yellow Vests, movement, named for the safety vests French drivers must keep in their cars. The concession didn’t appease protesters, whose list of grievances extends much further. “The French won’t be satisfied with just crumbs, they want the whole baguette,” said Benjamin Cauchy, an early movement organizer, speaking to BFM TV, a 24-hour news channel.

Among other things, demonstrators demand an increase in the minimum wage, higher taxes on multinational companies and the wealthy, and a rollback in existing energy taxes. Macron is sure to refuse to take those steps, which would demolish his efforts to keep budget deficits below the European Union’s 3 percent limit and fly against the fiscal rectitude he’s promised financial markets. France is already skating close to the EU limit; the government must find an extra €2 billion ($2.3 billion) next year to compensate for the tax it’s now suspended.