The French president, Emmanuel Macron, faces a new challenge this weekend as a motorist protest movement threatens to bring the country to a standstill.

The so-called gilets jaunes (yellow vests) protest movement has no official organisation, no identified leader and no political affiliation. Instead, it has been almost entirely coordinated on social media.

As a result, the French authorities fear the location of the protests is almost impossible to pin down and nobody has a clue how many people will turn up.

On Friday, the prime minister, Édouard Philippe, said the gilets jaunes were free to protest but blocking the country was “obviously not acceptable”.

A call to action across France in protest at the rising cost of diesel and petrol, has sparked vigorous support on Facebook, where the Blocage 17 Novembre 2018 page, has almost 25,000 followers. The group states: “We point out that we are not part of any organisation (or political party). This event comes about only from the French people.”

The “yellow vests” are named after the hi-vis tops motorists are obliged to carry in their vehicles under French law in case of a breakdown. France has a long history of citizens taking to the streets to force the hands of successive governments over the past 50 years.

Macron has defended the rise in taxes on fuel next year, which comes after a 23% rise in the cost of diesel and 15% in petrol in the past year. Ministers say price increases are mainly due to higher wholesale oil prices globally. But there is anger about taxes on fuel that have risen incrementally since 2014. Diesel is due to be taxed another 6.5 cents per litre and petrol by 2.9 cents in France from January.

The government says its transport policy is aimed at long-term “ecological transition” and encouraging more environment-friendly vehicles.

“I prefer taxing fuel to taxing labour,” Macron said last week. “People complaining about rising fuel prices are the same ones who complain about pollution and how their children suffer.”

Critics say the rising fuel prices hits workers who depend on cars to get to and from their jobs particularly in the countryside. The dispute has sparked a rift between the city “elite” and the rural poor in France, where Macron has been labelled the president of the rich because of his tax breaks for business.

Laurent Wauquiez, the leader of the opposition centre-right Les Républicains, tweeted: “You have to be completely out of touch with reality not to understand that taxing fuel is taxing those who work.”

The economy minister, Bruno Le Maire, has spent recent days promoting the government’s financial incentives for drivers to move away from diesel. These include a rebate for owners who trade in vehicles for a more environmentally friendly model.

There is also an “ecological bonus” for drivers who rent or buy new electric vehicles. Protesters struggling to meet the rising cost of fuel say this does not help them in the short term.

While go-slow actions will be tolerated during the demonstration, police have been ordered to break up any protests that bring roads to a standstill.

A poll by Elabe for BFM TV on Wednesday suggested 73% of French people supported the protests and 70% said the government should scrap the fuel price rises.