The French President is trying desperately to control the protests which have paralysed parts of France since erupting last month with demonstrators clashing with police, torching cars, erecting roadblocks and burning barricades. Mr Macron used his traditional New Year’s Eve address to acknowledge the “anger” among the so-called “yellow vest” protests but warned that hateful speech and actions would not be tolerated and denouncing extremist elements within the movement.
Speaking from the Elysee Palace, Mr Macron said he would use the anger as a “lesson” for the coming year.
He said: “An anger that came from far away broke out.
“Anger against injustices, against the course of globalisation, sometimes incomprehensible, anger against an administrative system that has become too complex and lacking in benevolence.
“To me, this anger means one thing, whatever its excesses: we didn’t resign ourselves.”
The protests, named after the yellow high-visibility jackets French motorists must carry in their vehicles, have transformed from dissent over rising petrol prices and eco-taxes into a broader demonstration against Mr Macron’s administration and growing tensions between the metropolitan elite and rural poor.
Without naming the yellow vest protests directly, the President launched a broadside against extreme and violent parts of the movement who claimed to speak “on behalf of the people” but were actually speaking for a “hateful crowd” to “attack officials, the police, journalists, Jews, foreigners, homosexuals.”
He described the violent troublemakers as ”the negation of France.”
Mr Macron said France “wants to build a better future” insisted people must respect each other and remember the lessons from the generations who fought for today’s freedoms.
He said: “We are free in our country only because generations before us fought not to suffer from despotism or any tyranny, and this freedom requires a republican order.
“It requires the respect of each and all opinions.”
Mr Macron last month promised to increase the minimum wage and scrap new pension taxes but these measures have done little to appease the anger felt by some hardcore protesters.
At the protests’ height, 1,723 people were taken in for questioning and 1,220 were taken into custody over one weekend.
On December 15, about 34,000 protesters had turned out across France, including more than 2,000 in Paris, according to the Interior Ministry. The previous week, some 77,000 protesters demonstrated across the country, including 10,000 in Paris.
Ten people have died in connection with the protests, with most deaths occurring in traffic accidents related to blockades in November and December.
The number of demonstrators has dwindled over the past couple of weeks, while authorities have ramped up policing to prevent a repeat of earlier violence.