Emmanuel Macron

Macron won the presidential election against Marine Le Pen with 66.1% of the vote, becoming the youngest president in French history at age 39. His centrist party, En Marche!, also won a majority in the National Assembly.

Macron's fuel tax increases sparked the Yellow Vest movement, the largest and most sustained protests in France in decades. The protests, characterized by violence and demands for economic justice, forced Macron to cancel the tax and announce spending measures.

Macron's government used Article 49.3 of the constitution to pass a pension reform raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 without a parliamentary vote. The move triggered massive protests, strikes, and a no-confidence motion that failed by nine votes.