France yellow vest protests: Macron promises wage rise

[Glasgow]

France's President Emmanuel Macron has promised a minimum wage rise and tax concessions in response to weeks of violent protests.

France has seen four weekends of violent protests against fuel tax rises, living costs and other issues.

Speaking in a televised address, Mr Macron condemned the violence but said the protesters' anger was "deep, and in many ways legitimate".

The minimum wage would increase by €100 per month from 2019, he said.

A planned tax increase for low-income pensioners would be cancelled, overtime pay would no longer be taxed, and employers would be encouraged to pay a tax-free end of year bonus to employees, he added.

However, he refused to reinstate a tax on the wealthy, saying "this would weaken us, we need to create jobs".

The minimum wage will be increased by 7% - and the cost of this increase will be met by the government rather than employers.

Government minister Olivier Dussopt told broadcaster BFMTV the total cost of all the measures is likely to be between €8bn and €10bn.

"We are in the process of fine-tuning and to see how to finance it," he added.

Macron 'had no choice'
Analysis by the BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris

They wanted more than just a politician's promises. They wanted measures, banknotes in their pockets, a tangible change in their impoverished daily lives.

President Macron got the message. In fact he had no choice. To have blethered about future challenges and the need for nation-building would have driven the yellow vests to distraction.

So here - at the core of the address - were four simple changes: a rise in the minimum wage; the removal of tax and social charges on overtime; encouragement to employers to give workers a tax-free bonus; and an end to a surcharge on most pensions.

Plus a note of contrition, and a promise of a new "national contract" built on electoral change and wider consultation with the provinces.

Chuck in the concessions already given - an end to the fuel tax rise and "mobility" grants for people who drive to work - and the yellow vests suddenly appear as one of the most successful protest movements of modern times.

Four weeks after their first Facebook videos were posted, they have forced a total reorientation of French social and economic policy. And without even making out a formal list of demands.

What did Macron say about the protests?
Mr Macron, who has until now kept a low profile during the protests, acknowledged that many people were unhappy with living conditions and felt they "had not been listened to".

He said that over the last 40 years there had been "a malaise" of "villages and neighbourhoods where public services have been diminishing, where living conditions had deteriorated".