Macron reeling as tough stance against 'yellow vests' backfires

"IMPASSE"

Macron sought to head off the rebellion in December with a promise of tax cuts for pensioners, wage rises for the poorest workers and a reversal of planned fuel tax hikes, while pledging a national debate on key policy issues. He fell short.

The price tag for those concessions: 10 billion euros, enough to send French borrowing costs higher as investors fretted about debt levels and Macron's ability to reform the euro zone's second largest economy.

Laurent Berger, head of the reform-minded CFDT trade union, France's largest by members, on Sunday accused Macron's government of going it alone at a time it needed to reach out.

"We're at an impasse. We have on the one side a violent movement ... and on the other a government which thinks it can find the answers all on its own," Berger told France Inter.

Some 50,000 protesters marched through cities and towns across France, including Paris, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Rennes and Marseille.

In Paris, the street marches began peacefully but degenerated when some protesters threw punches at baton-wielding officers, torched electric scooters and garbage bins along the Left Bank's upscale Boulevard Saint Germain and set cars ablaze near the Champs Elysees. Clashes erupted in other cities too.

Both yellow vests and "casseurs", hooded youths from anti-capitalist or anarchist groups, appeared to be involved.

Labour Minister Muriel Penicaud said the prolonged unrest was hurting foreign investment.

Opposition lawmakers demanded the government put forward concrete proposals to address the yellow vests' demands, but government ministers dismissed caving in to a minority of troublemakers.

"We need to stop being a country that listens to those who cry the loudest," Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer told LCI news channel.

Reuters