In his most substantive public remarks on the Yellow Vests protests that have roiled France, President Emmanuel Macron promised steps to address them.<\/b>
\nPARIS \u2014 Faced with violent protests and calls for his resignation, President Emmanuel Macron of France said Monday that he had heard the anger of the many whose economic suffering has burst into the open in recent weeks and that he would take immediate steps to relieve their hardship.
He announced tax cuts and wage increases for France\u2019s struggling middle class and working poor, vowing to increase the minimum wage. He promised to listen to the voices of the country, to its small-town mayors and its working people.
\u201cThere is anger, anger and indignation that many French share,\u201d he said in a nationally televised speech.
It is the anger of \u201cthe couple who earn salaries that do not finish the month, and who get up every day early and come home late,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is the single mother, a widow, a divorcee,\u201d whose life is no longer worth living, he said, and \u201chas no more hope.\u201d
It is anger too, he said, of retired people of small means who have \u201ccontributed all their lives and often helped both parents and children, and no longer make ends meet.\u201d
Mr. Macron said the details of his relief steps would be announced by Prime Minister \u00c9douard Phillipe in Parliament on Tuesday, but that there would be a 100 euro ($114) increase in the monthly minimum wage starting in January; that taxes on overtime pay would be eliminated and that retirees whose pensions are less than 2,000 euros ($2,270) a month would no longer be asked to pay a recent increase in social security taxes.
His speech was an attempt by a politician regarded as aloof and imperious to connect with ordinary citizens in Europe\u2019s third-largest economy. The speech followed a month of turmoil in which a movement known as the Yellow Vests rampaged through Paris and other French cities. The movement, which began as a revolt against a fuel tax increase, has morphed into an angry rebuke of Mr. Macron and his government\u2019s failure to focus on what his critics call France\u2019s forgotten middle class.
\u201cWhen one listens to the Yellow Vests, one hears many different demands, but there is more and more agreement that Emmanuel Macron should resign,\u201d said Thomas Snegaroff, a professor of political science at Sciences Po in Paris. \u201cThe people allude to the French Revolution, \u2018We have to cut off the head of the king.\u2019\u201d
Mr. Macron, elected in 2017 to a five-year term, has shown little inclination to resign. His new political party holds an overwhelming majority in France\u2019s legislature, and Mr. Macron enjoys deep support among business leaders and many urban residents. But nationally, his popularity has collapsed and his domestic reform program has come under attack. To appease protesters, he has already suspended the hated fuel tax increase.
Beyond France, Mr. Macron\u2019s problems also mean problems for the European Union, already roiled by populist political forces and Britain\u2019s increasingly chaotic and uncertain plans to leave.
For more than a year, Mr. Macron has positioned himself as the natural heir to Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany as the bloc\u2019s dominant political figure. He has put himself forward, at times, as an establishment champion for a Continent besieged by far-right populism and has called for reforming the euro currency union and building a joint European army.
But now Mr. Macron is focused on his own political survival, and Ms. Merkel\u2019s political twilight has suddenly arrived, as her fellow conservatives in Germany last week elected her successor as party leader. Ms. Merkel remains chancellor, for now, but her diminished stature only accentuates a potential leadership vacuum in Europe.
\u201cWith Macron, you had a very ambitious European agenda from a young president urging European renewal and reform,\u201d said Pierre Vimont, a former French ambassador to the United States. \u201cBut here we see a more subdued president facing a difficult situation, and whose prospects to shape the next European Commission are not as good as before.\u201d
Earlier in the day, Mr. Macron\u2019s political vulnerability was on full display. He consulted with representatives of the major unions \u2014 a move he had largely spurned before \u2014 and met with business leaders, associations representing local politicians and parliamentary leaders, whose support he will need if he wants to push through new legislation.
The notice to reporters announcing the Monday meetings made no pretense about their significance. \u201cAt this serious moment for the nation, the president is bringing together all forces, political, local, economic and social, to hear their voices, their proposals and with the objective of mobilizing them for action,\u201d it said.
The criticism of Mr. Macron is that too often he has only consulted with a tight circle of advisers, or relied on himself. Early in his presidency, when his popularity levels were high, he tended to portray his role as a \u201cJupiterian\u201d president, and his bold style pleased those who had long regarded France as in desperate need of reform.
But this style has also backfired. He has often been dismissive of people\u2019s complaints and suggested that people were not trying hard enough. That has fed the feeling that he represents the elites and not the vast majority of the French. At the same time, lawmakers in Mr. Macron\u2019s political party have also been criticized for lacking roots in the working class.
\u201cHe has been insensitive to the kinds of popular concerns that make people feel they are drowning\u201d said Pascal Perrineau, a professor of political science at Sciences Po. \u201cHe has not been a president who brings people together.\u201d
On Monday, though, Mr. Macron began to try.
Karl Olive, the mayor of Poissy, a town on the outskirts of the Paris metropolitan area, said Mr. Macron lacked a feel for ordinary people such as those who lived in his town. On Sunday, Mr. Olive brought a group of mayors from his department, Yvelines, to explain to Mr. Macron how he needed to change.
The mayors insisted that Mr. Macron meet with them alone \u2014 and Mr. Olive said the president made a point of taking notes himself. The meeting was scheduled to last two hours, Mr. Olive said, but went on for nearly twice that long. \u201cThe president needs to understand that decisions have to come from the bottom up, the French people do not like it when it is top down,\u201d he said.
Mr. Olive said many people in his town are not in the streets but agree with the concerns of the Yellow Vests. Yet, he said, they are open to hearing that Mr. Macron has had a change of heart. \u201cThey are looking for more social justice and a new program. He has to change the goals, but also changing the method is important,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n