Macron is right about France's trouble. But he's the wrong man to fix them

Paris is not burning. Or, only a little bit is burning this evening. President Emmanuel Macron flooded the zone with twice as many police as last week. Then, there was the dawn roundup of hundreds of known troublemakers. Kettling the gilets jaunes in the Champs Elysée was a good way of preventing them from getting up to mischief on the side streets. And there were armoured personnel carriers parked at the Arc de Triomphe, should anyone doubt the government’s determination.

Macron may claim to have won this round but, like Pyrrhus, one other such victory would utterly undo him. Whatever he says when he breaks his silence tomorrow, the optics remain terrible. Shops have been looted. Cars are still burning. The television images have been terrible. Motorways are closed and now the farmers are angry again. If in Paris the absolute scale of destruction was less than before, and the number of gilets fewer, Macron has nevertheless met his, er, Waterloo.