(CNN) French President Emmanuel Macron has revealed long-awaited plans to alleviate nearly half a year of street protests that have sucked the oxygen out of his presidency and cast his political future into doubt.

Speaking at the Élysée presidential palace on Thursday after a monthslong national listening tour aimed at addressing the demands of the "Yellow Vest" movement, Macron laid out a series of reforms to tackle social inequity in the country.

The policy measures loosely outlined by Macron included "significantly" reducing income taxes for workers in France, cutting the size of the country's infamously bloated civil service, a greater investment in early childhood education, reforming the pensions scheme and more decentralization of government.

"I want to assign a simple purpose to this new era of our Republic: give hope back to everyone, by asking everyone to give the best of himself. This is how we will be able to rebuild together, very profoundly, what I call the art of being French," Macron said in his first full press conference with French media to date.

He also vowed to press on with "essential transformations" already in progress and pledged to restore "public order" after months of sometimes violent unrest.

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