PARIS (Sputnik) – Several thousand protesters gathered on the Palais-Royal Square in Paris following a call from the right-wing Patriots party to demand the resignation of the French President Emmanuel Macron.
After the first demonstration in early September, the Patriots issued a new call to take to the streets.
The activists called for Macron’s resignation and withdrawal from the European Union and NATO.
The latest Elabe poll showed that support for sanctions against Russia is on the decline among the French population, with only 40% saying they are in favor of restrictive measures against Moscow.
At the same time, 32% of respondents believe that sanctions should be limited to reduce their impact on the daily lives of French people, while 27% of respondents say that they are against economic sanctions.
Since 2021, energy prices in Europe have been surging as part of a global trend. After the beginning of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine in February 2022 and the adoption of several packages of sanctions against Moscow by the West, fuel prices have accelerated the growth, pushing many European governments to resort to contingency measures.
The French Parliament adopted in August two packages of emergency measures to protect the purchasing power of the population that took effect on September 1. They include the indexation of social benefits, the stabilization of electricity and gas prices, an increase in additional payments to civil servants, a fuel discount of 30 euro cents from September to October.