Boost for Macron as yellow vest support falls in week of clampdowns

When the "yellow vests" first took to the streets, they basked in the approval of the overwhelming majority of French people, but after three months of violent protests, the tide appears to be turning.

A poll suggested for the first time this week that most people — some 58 per cent — now want an end to the weekend protests. They are fed up with avoiding city centres on Saturdays for fear of getting caught in clashes between protesters and police, and they want to be able to shop or meet friends in cafés.

The French supported the initial roundabout occupations because they saw them as justified protests over fuel prices and the cost of living, said Bernard Sananès, head of the Elabe polling institute. “But there’s a gulf between the roundabout demands and the Saturday protests.”

The leaderless grassroots movement has widened into a more general revolt against a political class seen as out of touch with common people.

The government has made concessions, while people have grown weary of watching TV footage of violence every Saturday, which has caused €30 million euros (more than £26 million) worth of damage in French cities.

The French were horrified by the release on Friday of a recording of a “yellow vest’ figurehead, Christophe Chalençon, by an Italian TV show.

“We’ve got paramilitaries ready to intervene because they also want to topple the government,” Mr Chalençon, whose face is not shown, is heard saying.

Questioned about the recording, which French media pronounced authentic, Mr Chalençon, a blacksmith, denied being in “formal” contact with paramilitaries but told Le Parisien newspaper: “I only receive messages from armed people who say they’re ready.”

More moderate “yellow vests” disowned his statement in a further sign of growing splits in the movement. Rival far-Right and ultra-Leftist factions fought with fists, rocks and sticks in a Lyon street last weekend.

The image of the “yellow vests” has also been tarnished by accusations of anti-semitism, with offensive slogans appearing in Paris around the time of the protests last weekend and the government reporting a 74 per cent surge in offences against Jews. Benjamin Cauchy, a prominent “yellow vest” held talks with Jewish leaders in Toulouse this week and denounced anti-semitism.

Several “yellow vests” appeared in court this week. Prosecutors called for Eric Drouet, a lorry driver, to be sentenced to a suspended prison term of one month for holding unauthorised demonstrations. He is to return to court in June on the more serious charge of carrying a weapon, a truncheon, punishable by a maximum jail sentence of 10 years.

A former boxer, Christope Dettinger, was sentenced to a year in prison for punching and kicking a policeman, but will be allowed out during the day so he can keep his job as a municipal maintenance worker. A man who admitted driving a fork-lift truck into the door of a ministry during a protest was remanded in custody until his trial next month.

Mr Cauchy suggested returning to the roundabouts and holding protests in cities on Sunday instead of Saturday.

"Staging arches on Sunday will allow families to take their babies in prams out on the streets. I doubt Interior Minister Castaner will send cops out with water cannons and rubber bullets if we do,” he wrote in a Facebook post. Mr Droutet also called for Sunday protests.