I tend to doubt this attempt to buy off the left-wing of the Yellow Vests will work, since it falls well short of him resigning:
French president Emmanuel Macron tonight announced a range of dramatic Socialist-style financial concessions to struggling workers so as to end an ‘economic and social state of emergency’.
In a TV address lasting 12 minutes, he said a month of rioting and blockades justified a €100 (£90) increase in the minimum wage, taking it to €1498 (£1360).
This will not ‘cost anything to the employer’, said Mr Macron, and will be accompanied by all taxes and other charges on overtimes being scrapped.
There were also be an end-of-year bonus that employers can pay without being charged by the government, while taxes on those earning less than €2000 (£1800) will also end on January 1.
Mr Macron also ruled out any return of the Solidarity Wealth Tax, saying that he wanted to stop rich entrepreneurs ‘moving abroad’, so preventing ‘job creation’.
The extraordinarily generous package of measures represents a massive U-turn by Mr Macron who originally said he would not yield to rioting as he tried to liberalise the sluggish France economy.
He’s showing weakness. This is not the time to declare victory and go home, it’s the time to press harder. Notice that he’s appealing to the union leaders; the leaders are always the weak point.