Support falls for France’s ‘yellow vest’ protests following Macron speech

Support for the “yellow vest” protesters in France has dropped sharply following President Emmanuel Macron’s concessions to ease taxes and boost income, leaving the country split, two opinion polls showed yesterday. One poll, carried out by Opinionway, said 54% of those surveyed wanted the protest to stop, while 45% wanted it to continue. A second poll, carried out Odoxa, showed nearly reverse figures, with 46% wanting them to stop and 54% wanting the protests to continue. Both polls revealed a major shift in public opinion overall. More than two out of three French people had previously supported the grassroots movement which sprang up in opposition to fuel taxes but snowballed into broad opposition to Macron’s probusiness agenda. The OpinionWay telephone poll was carried out Monday evening amongst 991 respondents, with a margin of error of 1.5 to 3.0 percentage points. The Odoxa Internet poll was carried out on Monday evening and yesterday morning among 992 people with a margin of error of 1.4 to 3.1 points.