Macon labours to cope with crisis as the gilets jaunes havoc continues

I wrote this for the Comment section of The National (Abu Dhabi). The editor kindly permits reproduction of my work here ... I should add that I do not accuse all gilets jaunes, still less those shown in the clip, of behaving like hooligans though many do ...

After 10 weeks of violent unrest, the question is not just how flawed Emmanuel Macron has been in response to the gravest crisis of his presidency, but what has gone wrong with France?

The gilets jaunes protest movement has seen several people die and many more hurt, buildings set on fire, motorways blocked and businesses and jobs threatened.

In part at least, it presents an ugly caricature of a nation defiantly proud of its historically rebellious streak. When the original cause, the rocketing cost of fuel, was rendered academic by falling prices at the pump and the withdrawal of a proposed new green tax, attention merely shifted to other issues.