The “yellow vest” movement in France — the protest movement that originally began as a backlash against a gas tax and has expanded to encompass a general working-class discontent with the government of French President Emmanuel Macron — had ebbed a bit over the Christmas holidays.

That seemed to make the government a bit more confident in dealing with the protesters head-on, speaking in somewhat more confrontational tones about the government’s direction. Further conciliation seemed to be well off the table, particularly when it came to the economic aims of the Macron administration.

“The government would not relent in its pursuit of reforms to reshape the economy, government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said on Friday, branding the remaining protesters agitators seeking to overthrow the government,” Reuters reported on Sunday.

So, how did that work out for him?

“Twenty-four hours later, he was fleeing his office out of a back door as protesters invaded the courtyard and smashed up several cars,” the report read.

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“Around 15 masked people dressed in black broke into Mr. Griveaux’s office at about 4:30 on Saturday,” a source told the U.K. Daily Mail.

“His staff had heard the group approaching, and managed to get him to safety, and he was unhurt. Video is being studied to try and identify those involved. There were Yellow Vest protesters in the vicinity.”

The attack came amid a weekend of renewed protesting in Paris, which saw, among other things, a violent confrontation between protesters and riot police on a bridge over the Seine River, in which the police were punched and kicked, and yet another round of cars being set ablaze on the Champs Elysees.

“It wasn’t me who was attacked,” the 41-year-old Griveaux later said, according to Reuters. “It was the Republic.”

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That comment alone should boost the tiny violin industry in the European Union by at least 23 percent in 2019.

This isn’t to say what happened to Griveaux was right; it was cheap thuggery. Then again, it happened to a guy who called the protesters — the vast majority of whom are peaceful — anarchists “who seek insurrection and basically want to overthrow the government.”

Mind you, the violent minority certainly didn’t help matters, but the size of the renewed protests showed just how tone deaf the government is to the yellow vests’ complaints. Either way, this certainly wasn’t an attack on the Fifth Republic, just the politicians currently occupying its posts.

The protests, in case you needed reminding, mostly have to do with the cost of living and the fact that the Macron government’s policies have benefited the urban elite, particularly on issues of taxes, transportation and “climate change.”

While some of Macron’s pro-business reforms were necessary in terms of maintaining France’s competitiveness in a global economy, it’s difficult to square that with policies deliberately conceived to increase the cost of living. The indifference the Macron government has shown when its officials didn’t believe the protests to be a threat — at the beginning and after they began to ebb — is as good as proof to protesters that authorities only pay attention to these trifles when their hold on the electorate is threatened.

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Macron continues to believe that these protests are an assault on the nation as a whole: “Once again, the Republic was attacked with extreme violence — its guardians, its representatives, its symbols,” he tweeted Sunday, according to Reuters.

The belief that Macron or Griveaux is a guardian or symbol of France at the current moment is a laughable one; Macron’s popularity in a December poll sat at 23 percent, according to the U.K. Express, and I doubt Griveaux, as an unelected bureaucrat who plans to go through with the very policies that caused this mess in the first place, would fare much better.

No, elected officials are not “the Republic” or the “guardians” and “symbols” of a nation. The moment they start believing they are, this is what they end up with.

This isn’t to condone the excesses of the yellow vests movement. It is, however, to say that it’s the natural result of a government that behaves as though it is supremely unconcerned with the needs of the electorate.

It’s a law as invariable as gravity — and the sooner Emmanuel Macron avails himself of this most elementary bit of political science, the sooner his government will awaken from this prolonged nightmare.

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