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France: Two Thirds Back ’Yellow Vest’ Protests, Poll Shows

France: Two Thirds Back ’Yellow Vest’ Protests, Poll Shows
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Two in three people back the "yellow vest" protests in France, and nearly 80 percent reject measures proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron as "insufficient", according to an opinion poll published Wednesday.

Sixty-six percent of those questioned said they supported the protests sparked by higher fuel taxes, underway for the past 12 days, which have seen hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets wearing high-visibility yellow jackets.

Only 32 percent of respondents said they opposed the movement, which has caused economic disruption as demonstrators hold up road traffic, the Opinion Way survey found.

The poll was carried out on Tuesday after Macron sought to defuse the unrest by pledging to defer future tax rises in times when international oil prices are increasing.

The centrist president also pledged a three-month public consultation aimed at producing a roadmap to help France shift to a low-carbon economy without penalizing low-income families.

But he refused to go back on an increase in fuel tax which is due to come into force in January, saying it is needed help fight pollution.

While initially focused on fuel taxes, the "yellow vest" movement has snowballed into wider protests against economic hardship in provincial France and perceived elitism on Macron's part.

Seventy-eight percent of the 1,013 people questioned said the measures announced by the president were "wholly" or "mostly insufficient".

Nearly 80 percent oppose the planned fuel tax hike in January.

The survey, conducted for LCI television, RTL radio and the Le Figaro newspaper, showed relatively stable support for the "yellow vests" since the start of the movement.

Violent protests in Paris last weekend made international headlines when the city's most famous boulevard, the Champs-Elysees, was engulfed in smoke from tear gas and burning barricades.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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