Macron faces a 'PRESIDENCY-DEFINING moment' as he crushes Yellow Vests with BRUTAL force express.co.uk

EMMANUEL MACRON is risking his entire political future crushing Yellow Vest demonstrators by force, drawing accusations of “authoritarianism” and parallels with another French leader, Charles De Gaulle, a French politics expert said. Mr Macron is going through a “presidency-defining moment” as a massive wave of protests sweeps across France, according to James Shields professor of French Politics and Modern History at the University of Warwick. The Yellow Vest movement and the way Mr Macron has dealt with it so far could determine the end of his mandate just two years after his election, the expert explained. He told Express.co.uk: “When Macron was elected, his biggest dread was to be like other presidents before him, beaten back from his reform agenda by street protests. He knows that if he fails to defuse the current crisis, his prospects for implementing controversial reforms to unemployment insurance or pensions will evaporate.