Once Europe's rising star, Macron is now fighting to save his image and his vision for transforming France's welfare state and economic model. Macron made multiple concessions that failed to extinguish the anger of the yellow vest movement, named after the fluorescent protective garments the protesters wear. The government appears politically weakened by the yellow vest movement but can still pass new bills at parliament, where Macron's centrist party holds a strong majority. Some yellow vest protesters are consider launching their own bid, which potentially could shuffle the cards. He had ambitions to create a new centrist alliance of European lawmakers, but the yellow vest crisis cast doubts on his capacity to do so.

Source: ABC News January 08, 2019 09:33 UTC