French President Emmanuel Macron returned directly from the G20 summit in Argentina to the triumphal arch in Paris. He did not detour. It should look like he is master of the situation.

Macron laid a minute of silence on Sunday morning in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the triumphal arch. Exactly where three weeks ago, on November 11, he received over 70 heads of state from around the world to commemorate the end of the First World War 100 years ago. But who still remembers the pictures of peacefully united heads of state in this place today?

Much stronger are the impressions of France's new protest movement, the "Yellow West," which conquered the triumphal arch on the last two Saturdays. The protests are getting sharper.

So far, protesters in Paris stormed the Bastille Square or the Republic Square in the east of the city. Never before, however, was the triumphal arch commissioned by Emperor Napoleon in the west of the capital scene-like protests.

Here, the people celebrated in 1998 and then again this summer, the World Cup victories of their own football team. In the past, military parades were held here. But the triumphal arch painted with demo graffiti, surrounded by burning street barricades, with singing demonstrators at the grave of the unknown soldier?

That did not even exist in May 1968, which is new in the long history of social protests in Paris. Macron had to recapture the lost public space all the faster.

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Protests in Paris: the day of escalation

The scenery is humiliating: the president in front of the triumphal arch with freshly sprayed slogans like "End Times of the Regime" or "The Yellow Vests Triumph" and "Increases Social Welfare!". Just now the cleanup crews had managed to get inscriptions like "Macron, step back!" to remove before the visit of the President. In the sous terrain of the triumphal arch, where a museum is located, Macron had to visit, according to media reports a beheaded by the "yellow vests" Napoleon statue. As if the demonstrators had wanted to remind their president of the bloody French revolutionary history.

Even as Macron was present, a passer-by spoke to C-News outside the triumphal arch: "I'm not demonstrating, but the protest does not bother me - people are not demanding much, now Macron has to answer them," he said young man.

Exactly such reactions would have to worry Macron. Because the number of demonstrators on this Saturday was again larger - this time, according to the Interior Ministry 136,000 people nationwide, one week before 106,000, two weeks earlier 290,000. And the protests are becoming more and more violent - on Saturday they were the third victim -, the support in the population does not diminish, also in radio, television and social media, the topic remains omnipresent. According to polls, up to three-quarters of the French have so far kept up with the goals of the "yellow vests". The values ​​are stable.

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The first "yellow vests" are already in the TV studios. "They treat us like sheep, but sheep can also revolt," says Alain Bouché, a 64-year-old landscape gardener from the Parisian suburb of Yvelines on Sunday talking to journalists. Bouché proposed his move to the PM last Thursday. Without success. "First, Macron has to take back the fuel tax hikes that overcame the cask," says Bouché. "But then there must be discussions about a general increase in purchasing power."

Nobody chose Bouché. No one knows what demands the "yellow vests" really have. But on Saturday they stood high up on the roof of the triumphal arch in their bright outfits, they locked the A9 to Spain in Narbonne on Sunday, they have been standing for weeks everywhere in the country at traffic lights and in roundabouts. "At some point, the people will crawl out of bed," the left-leaning opposition leader in parliament and presidential rival Macron Jean-Luc Mélenchon tried to explain the protests.

The intellectuals do not know better. The right-wing conservative philosopher Alain Finkielkraut literally supported "the dignified expression of suffering and despair" of many "yellow vests". The liberal philosopher Henri Bernard-Levy, however, preferred to speak of "brown west" and reminded of the fascist leagues of the 30s in France.

Macron does not help it all. Still on Sunday afternoon he met in the Elysee Palace for a special meeting with his crisis team. Plans for a possible state of emergency, which had been speculated on many media, were not according to the Élysée Palace.

Previously, Florian Philippot, the former right-wing naval chief Le Pen, gave him a hint on how to solve his problem: "Increase the minimum wage by five percent, lower the gasoline tax and reintroduce the tax on large fortunes."

The Elysee Palace announced that Macron would not comment on the protests this weekend. "Macron is always too late," commented the BFM television. Wondering how many times he can retake the triumphal arch, he should lose it again next Saturday.