French riots an unwelcome, perilous crisis for Emmanuel Macron
- The protests risk hurting the French president’s international standing at a time he wants to be seen as Europe’s No 1 power broker
- Macron will be judged by his ability to ease tensions and will need to tread a fine line domestically, one analyst notes
The violence erupted just after Macron finally saw off half a year of protests over his controversial pension reform, which dominated the domestic agenda for most of this year.
The postponement is doubly awkward for the Elysee as Macron had earlier this year put off a planned state visit by the UK’s King Charles III – which would have been his first foreign trip as monarch – due to the often-violent pensions protests.
He also cut short his attendance at an EU summit in Brussels this week, rushing back to Paris to chair a crisis meeting without giving a press conference.
After a first term that became dominated by combating the anti-government Yellow Vests protests and then the Covid-19 pandemic, the centrist’s second term again risks being marked by troubleshooting rather than implementing policy.
The rioting “is very bad news for the president”, who had been hoping for a smooth ride into the summer capped by a cabinet reshuffle to re-energise the government and move on from the pensions crisis, said Bruno Cautres, researcher at the Political Research Centre of Sciences Po university.