FOS-SIR-MER. “This government is not listening to us,” says Renal, a 50-year-old electrical engineer from the port of Marseille, as his colleagues erect a barricade on the road leading to the fuel depot. “There’s a lot of anger here”he adds.

Many hope that the implementation of the bill will be prevented. There is a precedent with a law passed in 2006. In addition, the controversial bill must pass through the Constitutional Council, the country’s highest court, which will consider the controversial way the legislation is advanced (introduced by presidential decree).

If the government finally manages to implement the bill, which it most likely will, it will be a Pyrrhic victory. The French President has cut bridges with potential allies, poisoned his relationships with potential partners at the negotiating table, and rallied the majority of the French against him.

In short, it will be harder for him from now on Macron to rule the country. Lacking a majority in the National Assembly, his Renaissance party relied on the support of center-right Republicans, but a vote of no confidence was supported by 19 Republican deputies.

“This government does not listen to us,” thousands of citizens shout.

Most importantly, the president has lost public confidence, draining any reserves of goodwill he retained after last year’s election, as he ignored the fact that millions of citizens voted for him, not because they liked him, but to prevent the far right from being elected. Marina. Le Pen. With the pension reform, the president’s approval rating fell below 30%. The current political climate echoes in many ways the beginning of the yellow vest movement in 2018 to raise the fuel tax. And then simmering anger at struggling households, huge popular support for dynamic forms of mobilization, and the astonishing inability of elites to heed the social pulse. As in 2018 and during the pension crisis, Macron avoided appealing to public opinion for several weeks, placing a heavy burden on Prime Minister Elizabeth Bourne.

“There is something of a breakdown in communication,” says Laurent Berger, general secretary of the largest trade union federation, the CFDT, known for its propensity to negotiate and compromise.

One solution has been proposed by historian and political scientist Patrick Weil: extend the period between presidential and parliamentary elections. This would allow French voters to have their say in the middle of a presidential term, like the Americans in the midterm congressional elections and the French before the 2002 constitutional revision. Meanwhile, the protests are radicalizing. Activists block highways, take to railroad tracks, and occasionally stage nightly demonstrations. The President of the country condemned the acts of violence, going so far as to compare their main characters with the storming of Donald Trump supporters in the Capitol. The French know from their own history, from 1789 and 1968 to the Yellow Vests, that direct action based on the acceptance of public opinion often produces results, even if it is noisy and chaotic.

Renal, the electrician who shared his views with us at the fuel depot, summed up the atmosphere of the moment best: “This government doesn’t want to negotiate. Well, at some point she will run into people who won’t want to negotiate with her, and neither will they.”