![\"Yellow](\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Yellow-vest-protesters-watch-Macrons-address.jpg\")
<\/a>Yellow vest protesters watch President Emmanuel Macron’s speech on TV in Fay-au-Loges. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n
Despite a televised appearance of humility and sympathy, French President Emmanuel Macron seems to have failed to quell the mood of national anger over wide-ranging economic grievances.<\/span><\/p>\n The capital Paris and other major French cities are thus set to see the fifth consecutive weekend of protests \u2013 or \u201cAct Five\u201d as the demonstrators are saying.<\/span><\/p>\n Nearly 24 hours after Macron\u2019s TV address, a gunman killed three people and injured dozens others in the eastern city of Strasbourg, prompting French authorities to declare a state of emergency. The heightened tensions across France with maximum security forces deployed come as protest marches are planned for this weekend against Macron\u2019s government.<\/span><\/p>\n After weeks of maintaining his silence on growing civil discord, Macron finally\u00a0 addressed<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\u00a0the nation in a 14-minute pre-recorded speech on Monday night. He sounded contrite and even humble, accepting that he had \u201coffended\u201d citizens with his aloof words and attitude.<\/span><\/p>\n The president also announced specific concessions: an increase in the minimum wage by \u20ac100 a month, the cancelling of taxes on low-income pensioners, and the exemption of overtime pay from taxation.<\/span><\/p>\n But the consensus expressed by protesters among the so-called Yellow Vest movement was one of contempt. They said Macron\u2019s televised concessions were \u201ccrumbs\u201d and \u201ctoo little too late\u201d. The upshot is that demonstrations will again be held in the French capital this weekend, as well as other major cities. The weekly gridlock is bringing the French economy to a crisis point.<\/span><\/p>\n The latest deadly shooting incident in Strasbourg on Tuesday night may throw the weekend protests into disarray from the subsequent security tensions and fear of further violence. A question many protesters are asking is: who gains from the timing of the Strasbourg killings?<\/span><\/p>\n What no doubt is further unnerving Macron\u2019s government is that the public protests appear to be growing across social sectors. Public sector workers and students are planning to join in the cause. What is emerging is a generalized public revolt \u2013 reminiscent of the epic 1968 revolution which toppled the incumbent government of President Charles de Gaulle, at least temporarily.<\/span><\/p>\n The protests first broke in early November over the French government\u2019s planned hikes in transport fuel taxes. French drivers, who have to carry high-visibility yellow vests in their vehicles as a legal safety measure, were the first to take to the streets. But what began as a specific fuel tax issue has expanded and tapped into a broad popular revolt against Macron\u2019s neoliberal capitalist policies.<\/span><\/p>\n The trouble for Macron is that he just can\u2019t help sounding elitist \u2013 and insincere. During his TV \u201cmea culpa\u201d, he may have offered concessions on wages and taxes, but the president spent a large part of his national address berating protesters for using violence. He said that while the public anger was \u201cdeep and in many ways legitimate\u201d there was \u201cno excuse for violence\u201d. Well, the way many French citizens and other observers see it, it is the French state that is using excessive violence to repress the right to public protest.<\/span><\/p>\n Last weekend saw up to 90,000 French riot police and troops deployed across the country to contain demonstrations. Hundreds of protesters were arrested and put in custody \u201cpreemptively\u201d. There were also\u00a0scenes<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0of gratuitous brutality by police when peaceful protesters were fired on with teargas and water cannons.<\/span><\/p>\n When Macron lectures \u201cthere is no excuse for violence\u201d his words sound trite and hypocritical given the levels of uncalled-for violence that the French state has licensed itself to use.<\/span><\/p>\n