French President Emmanuel Macron will meet representatives of trade unions, employers’ organisations and associations of local elected officials on Monday, an Élysée palace source said on Sunday. The meeting, which will take place at 0900 GMT, follows a fourth weekend of violent “yellow vest” riots in which anti-government protesters threw stones, torched cars and vandalised shops and restaurants across the country.
“The President wants to bring together all the political, territorial, economic and social forces at these difficult times for the nation, in order to hear their voices and proposals with a view to mobilise them into action,” the source said.
Cleaning the mess
Earlier, workers in Paris swept up broken glass and towed away burnt-out cars on Sunday after the latest violent “yellow vest” protest while the government announced that Mr. Macron would address the nation in the next few days.
Across the city, bank branch offices, toy shops, opticians and other retail outlets had boarded up storefronts smashed by protesters, and walls were covered in anti-Macron slogans. “You won’t make it past Christmas, Emmanuel,” read the graffiti on a boarded-up shop near the Champs-Élysées boulevard.
Mr. Macron, elected in May 2017, is facing mounting criticism for not speaking in public in more than a week as violence worsened.
The upheaval in the Christmas shopping season has dealt a heavy blow to retailing, the tourist industry and the manufacturing sector as road blocks disrupt supply chains.
The protest movement will have “a severe impact” on the French economy, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Sunday as he toured an upmarket central Paris neighbourhood that had seen heavy looting on Saturday night.
Anti-Macron rebellion
The government this week cancelled a planned rise in taxes on petrol and diesel in a bid to defuse the situation but the protests have morphed into a broader anti-Macron rebellion.
Mr. Macron’s last major address was on November 27, when he said he would not be forced into changing policy by ”thugs”. “The President of the Republic will ... make important announcements,” government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said on LCI television on Sunday.
