Macron Makes U-Turn on Fuel-Tax Increases in Face of ‘Yellow Vest’ Protests

Macron Makes U-Turn on Fuel-Tax Increases in Face of ‘Yellow Vest’ Protests
French President Emmanuel Macron at the UCL university in Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium, on Nov. 20, 2018. Reuters/Yves Herman/Pool/File Photo
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PARIS—France’s prime minister has suspended planned increases to fuel taxes for at least six months, in response to weeks of sometimes violent protests, the first major U-turn by President Emmanuel Macron’s administration after 18 months in office.

In announcing the decision, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said anyone would have “to be deaf or blind” not to see or hear the roiling anger on the streets over a policy that Macron has defended as critical to combating climate change.