in the run-up to Christmas.

Senior members of Macron’s La Republique En Marche party said the government could also increase the minimum wage from January along with other measures to deliver a quick boost low-income households, although the details remained unclear.

CHANGE FRANCE?

Macron, a 40-year-old former investment banker and economy minister, came to office in mid-2017 promising to overhaul the French economy, revitalize growth and draw foreign investment by making the nation a more attractive place to do business.

In short order he made changes to the labor code to make hiring and firing easier, he took on the rail unions by forcing through changes to the national rail company, and he cut wealth taxes in a bid to stimulate investment.

However, in the process he earned the tag “president of thea “new style” president willing to shake up France.

He has said repeatedly that he will not back down but with his ratings barely above 20 percent and with other major changes in the pipeline, including pensions reform, party officials say he needs to find a way of cooling the turbulent atmosphere.

He is also aware that the anti-establishment fervor spurring the yellow vests on could spell trouble in next year’s European election.

Macron has described that election as a battle between progressives like himself and populists on the far-right and the far-left, who have made recent gains in the polls on the back of the popular discontent.

(Reporting by Simon Carraud, Marine Pennetier, Elizabeth Pineau and Richard Lough; Editing by Jon Boyle)