The French Prime Minister is set to announce hated fuel tax hikes will be suspended following days of rioting, government sources have revealed this morning.
Edouard Philippe yesterday met with ministers and with the heads of the main opposition parties to discuss ways of resolving Paris's worst rioting in decades.
Today, he is expected to announce a suspension of fuel tax increases planned for January 1 in a bid to end the violent 'yellow vest' protests which have seen the Arc de Triomphe defaced and avenues off Paris's Champs Elysees suffering mass vandalism.
The suspension will be accompanied by other measures aimed at calming two weeks of nationwide demonstrations, the sources said.
The demonstrations, which degenerated into street clashes and vandalism in Paris over the weekend, erupted last month over the fuel taxes which are financing France's anti-pollution efforts.
Originally spurred by the soaring cost of fuel this year, they quickly ballooned into a wider revolt over President Emmanuel Macron, accused of pursuing policies which hit low-income households particularly hard.
Halting the fuel tax increase was one of the main demands listed by 'yellow vest' leaders, alongside a higher minimum wage and the return of a wealth tax on high-earners abolished last year.
Macron made the decision to suspend the 2019 fuel tax hikes late Monday, the sources said, after his government spent the day meeting with leaders from all of France's political parties.
Many were pressing the president to assuage the anger after the running urban battles seen in the capital on Saturday, when dozens of cars were burned and shops attacked and looted.
Paris police said 412 people were arrested during clashes in the capital on Saturday alone and 363 remained in custody, according to the latest figures.
Some of those who appeared in court Monday had long criminal records for violent crime and clashing with police, but others included a 21-year-old with a master's degree in finance, sources said.
Philippe will announce the fuel tax suspension later Tuesday after meeting with lawmakers in his Republic on the Move party.
But the prime minister's office confirmed that Philippe would not meet with a delegation of the 'yellow vests' for 'security reasons', after several said they had received threats by protesters contesting their claim to represent the grassroots movement.
Meanwhile, President Emmanuel Macron and Philippe's approval ratings have hit new lows as the protests gathered pace, according to an Ifop-Fiducial poll for Paris Match and Sud Radio published on Tuesday.
Macron's approval rating fell to 23 per cent in the poll conducted late last week, down six points on the previous month. Philippe's rating fell 10 points to 26 per cent.
The president's score matches the low charted by his predecessor Francois Hollande in late 2013, according to Paris Match. Hollande was then considered to be the least popular leader in modern French history.
The first 'yellow vest' demonstrations were held on November 17 to contest fuel-tax rises, and have since evolved into a broader protest movement and anti-Macron uprising.
It continued yesterday with riot police using tear gas to quell high school student protests across France. One shocking video showed police firing smoke grenades at teenagers who kicked them back at officers as violence escalated.
Another showed teenagers fleeing from police tear gas in Orleans while cars were set on fire outside a high school in the Paris suburb of Aubervilliers, where seven students were arrested following a walk-out.
Around 1,000 pupils, many wearing high-vis vests, demonstrated in the city of Nice, and photographs from another student protest in Bordeaux appear to show riot police using batons against teenagers.
Hundreds of schools across the country were totally or partially blocked by students piggybacking on the 'yellow vest' demonstrations to air frustration over new university entrance requirements.
President Macron's government want universities to be able to apply admissions criteria and select students on merits such as exam results or entrance exams for some oversubscribed degrees.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
