BELEAGUERED French President Emmanuel Macron is stubbornly refusing to resign despite 11 weeks of protests which have been met with tear gas and violence from security services as his popularity ratings plummet.

Leading member of the yellow vest movement Eric Drouet called for “a mass uprising without precedent by all useful and necessary means,” on Saturday after another prominent activist fell into a coma after being struck by an object in Paris.

Jerome Rodrigues was taken to hospital bleeding heavily from a wounded eye after being hit by what his lawyer Philippe de Veulle claimed he had material evidence was a “flashball” — often used by French police to quell protests.

Mr de Veulle confirmed that Mr Rodrigues had been “placed in an artificial coma” and was likely to be “handicapped for life.”

The incident happened as the yellow vest movement poured onto the streets across the country again this weekend, marking more than two months of anti-government demonstrations.

Protests started in November over a rise in fuel prices, however they soon grew into a movement opposing the austerity measures implemented by Mr Macron’s neoliberal regime.

He has been branded a “president of the rich” with his 18-month rule plagued by a series of strikes over plans to slash public sector spending in line with stringent European Union rules.

His programme contains plans to axe 125,000 public-sector jobs and dismantle the country’s public rail network and hand it to the private sector, cutting pensions and terms and conditions of rail workers.

The yellow vest movement has forced concessions from Mr Macron, including a scrapping of the fuel tax and a rise in the minimum wage, however the demonstrations have continued calling for him to stand down and call fresh elections.

Mr Macron’s approval ratings have struggled to rise above 30 per cent since the demonstrations began.