Macron axes fuel tax rises amid rising panic at unrest

French president scraps increases as ‘smash and kill’ riots predicted and wider protests expected

EMMANUEL MACRON, the president of France, is to scrap fuel tax rises that sparked three weeks of unrest and the worst riots seen in Paris for half a century, as the Elysée last night warned that “several thousand” hardened protesters were bent on descending on Paris on Saturday “to smash and kill”.

However, in a decision that risked further fuelling the “yellow vest” revolt, Mr Macron ruled out reversing a landmark decision to scrap a wealth tax that has seen him dubbed by critics “the president of the rich”.

In a sign of rising panic at the pinnacle of the French state, the presidency issued a hasty evening announcement that the government would be totally scrapping a “green tax” on diesel and petrol due to be imposed on Jan 1. The move came just 24 hours after Edouard Philippe, the prime minister, said the tax rise would merely be “suspended” for six months.

That clearly failed to dispel protesters’ desire to occupy roads and roundabouts, nor the determination of many to return to Paris next Saturday despite the government’s increasingly plaintive pleas for people to stay away.

An Elabe poll suggested 78 per cent of French believed that the concessions did not meet the expectations of the yellow vests. Some 72 per cent continue to support the movement.

In comments to France Info radio, the president’s office said it had received “extremely worrying” information that “a hard core of several thousand people” were intent on coming to Paris on Saturday.

In another worrying development for the embattled centrist president, whose popularity has slumped to 23 per cent, truck drivers pledged to launch a rolling strike starting on Sunday, while farmers said they would join nationwide protests next week. Meanwhile, dozens of lycées were blocked as students set fires outside high schools to protest against a new university application system. Two were seriously injured by rubber bullets. Retirees also marched to vent ire against new levies on their pensions.

In signs that the Macron administration was unravelling, two ministers had suggested yesterday that France could reinstate the wealth tax that the president partially abolished. Yesterday Benjamin Griveaux, the government spokesman, said that the wealth tax cut could be reassessed in the autumn of 2019. “If a measure that we have taken, which is costing the public money, turns out not to be working, if it’s not going well, we’re not stupid – we would change it,” he told RTL radio.

But hours later, the Elysée totally quashed that suggestion, telling French media that Mr Macron had upbraided the two ministers who had hinted at restoring the tax, saying: “We will unpick nothing that has been done over the past 18 months.”