France’s anti-Macron protests are turning deadlier

France is burning.

The country is currently in the grip of widespread protests and riots that have led to violent clashes with police, leaving hundreds injured and thousands of dollars’ worth of property damaged.

The protests began around November 17, when French drivers sporting yellow vests led a demonstration of 280,000 people across the country to push back against rising taxes on gas and diesel fuel. French President Emmanuel Macron announced the new gas tax earlier this year, as part of a broader plan to minimize France’s reliance on fossil fuels.

The tax will increase the price of fuel by about 30 cents per gallon and will continue to rise over the next few years, the French government says. Gas already costs about $7.06 per gallon in France.

The protest movement — known as gilets jaunes, French for the “yellow vests” demonstrators wear — has blockaded streets and highways, burned cars, and brawled with police in response to the price hike.

In recent days, though, the protesters have begun directing their anger at the state of France’s economy as well, and at Macron’s leadership of the country in general.

Saturday saw one of the worst days of unrest yet, with the third large-scale riots in Paris described by some as “urban warfare” and “the worst riots in a generation.” Around 133 people were injured — including law enforcement officials — and about 412 were arrested. France’s Interior Ministry said it had to deploy 37,000 police officers, 30,000 firefighters, and 30,000 gendarmes, members of the ministry’s armed forces, to contend with the protest.

But the movement has spread to many parts of the country — and in some cases turned deadly.

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On Saturday, an 80-year-old woman died in the southern port city of Marseille when she was hit in the face by a tear gas canister. Three other people have also died since the protests began, according to police.

Yellow jackets also blocked access to 11 fuel depots for the French energy company Total, resulting in 75 of the company’s 2,200 gas stations going dry. And Macron’s government estimates shops and restaurants have lost between 20 and 50 percent of their expected revenue since the demonstrations started.

The protests have shown no signs of stopping — in fact, they’re escalating. The French government says around 136,000 people participated in a nationwide protest on Sunday. And on Monday, students in 100 schools across the country demonstrated against educational reform.

The growing movement has captured the attention of many around the world, including at least one American celebrity with, uh, some anti-Western tendencies:

And it has greatly preoccupied Macron’s government, which has made little progress in stopping the uprising.

Macron tweeted on Saturday that he will “always respect the protest” and “will always listen to the opposition,” but added: “I will never accept the violence.” He held a security meeting with his top staff on Monday, and the country’s prime minister plans to meet with representatives for the “yellow vests” movement on Tuesday.

But the gas tax or educational changes no longer seem like the main reason French people are protesting — it’s mostly because of Macron himself.

Why so many French people are unhappy with Macron

Jeff Lightfoot, an expert on France at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington, DC, told me last week there are two main reasons Macron has become such an unpopular figure.

The first is that he doesn’t really have a political base. He’s a Parisian technocrat who rode a wave of dissatisfaction with traditional French political parties to presidential victory in May 2017. He has yet to gain much support outside of urban areas.

So one of Macron’s biggest political liabilities is that he doesn’t have a reliable contingent of support if things get bad.

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The second reason, unfortunately for Macron, is that things have gotten bad in the country economically.

France’s economy is growing, but very slowly. Most of the growth is centered in its major cities, like Paris, and others on the periphery and in rural communities haven’t seen as many gains. What’s more, France’s rural population relies much more on cars than its urban dwellers do, which is why many in those regions seem the most angry with the gas tax.

“Ask a Parisian — for him none of this is an issue, because he doesn’t need a car,” Marco Pavan, a truck and cab driver in a small town near the France-Switzerland border, told the Washington Post on Saturday. “We live on the side of a mountain,” he continued, “[t]here’s no bus or train to take us anywhere. We have to have a car.”

People’s anger with the elites have risen in recent months, says Lightfoot, in part because Macron can come off as arrogant and out of touch. “He openly mocks people,” Yves Rollet, a French retiree, also told the Post on Saturday.

It doesn’t help that Macron, in an effort to reform France’s economy, is cutting longstanding benefits and ending labor protections. For example, he’s made it easier for companies to hire and fire employees and fought unions to end subsidies for certain sectors.

That’s why some see Macron as a president of the rich, Lightfoot said: He’s initiating changes that many of the country’s wealthy can muddle through but that the nation’s poorer might not.

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That means Macron will be in protesters’ crosshairs for quite some time, especially since he has given no indication he will bend to their demands. It’s therefore possible that some of his political competitors — like the far-right politician Marine Le Pen, who is stoking tensions by claiming that Macron may fire on protesters — can take advantage of the public’s disaffection and become the premier alternative to Macron.

That has France watchers quite nervous about what happens not just in the next few days but well into the future. “It’s going to be a bumpy few years coming up,” Lightfoot told me.

Correction: A previous version of this article said that a protester threw a tear gas canister that hit an 80-year-old woman in the face and killed her. As of now, it’s still unclear who launched the canister. We’ve updated the piece to reflect this fact.