MACRON LOOKS AT MIGRANT QUOTAS TO WOO FAR RIGHT

Emmanuel Macron has suggested discussing the introduction of immigration quotas in nationwide debates that begin Tuesday in an attempt to end weekly anti-government protests by France’s “yellow vest” movement.

The centrist president will launch the first debate in Grand Bourgtheroulde, a small Normandy community emblematic of the “forgotten France” of the grassroots protest movement.

The two months of debates across the country are intended to air the grievances of the “yellow vest” protesters and identify remedies to defuse widespread public anger over living standards behind nine consecutive weekends of protests and clashes with police.

The 41-year-old president’s controversial move to consider quotas for non-EU immigration is seen as an effort to reach out to far-right voters.

The idea has horrified some of Macron’s own supporters. Aurelien Tache, an MP from the president’s party, La Republique en Marche, said: “It is astonishing that this issue is being brought up when the president has not discussed it with his party and when it has not come from the yellow-vest movement.”