Macron makes U-turn on fuel-tax increases
in face of 'yellow vest' protests
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[December 04, 2018]
By Simon Carraud and Luke Baker
PARIS (Reuters) - France's prime minister
on Tuesday suspended planned increases to fuel taxes for six months in
response to weeks of sometimes violent protests, the first major U-turn
by President Emmanuel Macron's administration after 18 months in office.
In announcing the decision, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said anyone
would have "to be deaf or blind" not to see or hear the anger on the
streets over a policy that Macron has defended as critical to combating
climate change.
"The French who have donned yellow vests want taxes to drop, and work to
pay. That's also what we want. If I didn't manage to explain it, if the
ruling majority didn't manage to convince the French, then something
must change," Philippe said in a TV address.
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As well as a six-month delay in introducing the carbon-tax increases,
Philippe said the period would be used to discuss other measures to help
the working poor who rely on vehicles to get to work and go to the
shops.
Earlier officials had hinted at possible increases to the minimum wage,
but Philippe did not make any such commitment.
He warned citizens, however, that they could not expect better public
services and to pay lower taxes, and that therefore compromises needed
to be made on both sides.
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![](../images/120418pics/news_n25.jpg)
A protester wearing a yellow vest, the symbol of a French drivers'
protest against higher diesel fuel prices, sits under a flag near
burning debris at the approach to the A2 Paris-Brussels Motorway, in
Fontaine-Notre-Dame, France, December 4, 2018. REUTERS/Pascal
Rossignol
![](../images/ads/current/fitzpatrick_lda_SPONSOR_2017.png)
The so-called "yellow vest" movement, which started on Nov. 17 as a
social-media protest group named for the high-visibility jackets all
motorists in France must have in their cars, has focused on
denouncing a squeeze on household spending brought about by Macron's
taxes on fuel.
However, over the past three weeks the protests have evolved into a
wider, broadbrush anti-Macron uprising, with many criticizing the
president for pursuing policies they say favor the rich and do
nothing to help the poor, and some violent fringe groups calling for
the president to go.
(Reporting by Simon Carraud, Marine Pennetier, Elizabeth Pineau and
Richard Lough; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
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