Protests and road barricades at roundabouts and toll-booths across France have continued, as many gilets jaunes demonstrators said concessions made by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, were not enough to calm their anger and sense of social injustice.

Anti-government demonstrators have called for further demonstrations in Paris on Saturday, after four weekends of protests saw rioting in the French capital and other cities and plunged France’s centrist president into his worst crisis in office.

Macron gave a prerecorded televised speech on Monday watched by more than 23 million people in which he announced major steps to address concerns that people in France could not make ends meet.

The minimum wage will increase by €100 a month from January, he said, and a planned tax on pensions under €2,000 a month would be cancelled.

But crucially, the president did not announce a U-turn on his pro-business policies. He stood firm by his decision to slash France’s wealth tax for the very rich. Many protesters had wanted a full wealth tax to be reintroduced.

Macron’s speech was never expected to stop the road barricades overnight.

The gilets jaunes protest movement – named after French motorists’ fluorescent high-visibility vests – began on 17 November as a sporadic tax revolt against what was seen as an unfair eco-tax on fuel but has grown into an anti-government movement against what people see as the pro-business Macron giving tax breaks to the rich and making life harder for the working poor.

Protesters watch Emmanuel Macron’s televised address in Bouguenais on Monday night. Photograph: Stéphane Mahé/Reuters

It was difficult to assess the full reaction of the gilets jaunes, a grassroots citizens’ movement with no leader or fixed structure.

Jacline Mouraud, a self-employed Breton woman who had been among the first demonstrators, called for a truce and said she felt gains had been made and a “door had opened” for discussion.

But many gilets jaunes on the barricades said the distrust of Macron was now so high that the protests would not stop.

At a roundabout in the southern town of Le Boulou, a car mechanic who was protesting said: “We can see that he isn’t sincere, that it’s all smoke and mirrors.”

Another gilet jaune in the north, who asked not to be named, told AFP it was too, little too late and Macron was “putting plasters on a third-degree burn”.

Many said nothing was being offered to people on slightly higher than the minimum wage or for public sector salaries, which remain low. Many taking part in demonstrations are public sector workers, from nurses and hospital staff to school support staff or fire officers.

Blockades continued on roads from Brittany to the south of France on Monday night and Tuesday morning. One group even bricked up the entrance of the local government office in Mont-de-Marsan in south-west France shortly after Macron’s speech.

High-school and university students also continued their blockades and strikes over school and university reforms on Tuesday.

Macron’s speech and concessions on Monday night were above all aimed at the general public, which has massively supported the gilets jaunes – with a majority of French people agreeing with the feeling of injustice and an unfair tax system in France.

Macron sought to try to win back the general public and lessen support for the protesters. A poll for LCI taken after Macron’s speech found 64% of the public still supported the gilets jaunes, but 54% thought the street protests should stop. The poll found that just under half of French people were won over by Macron’s speech.

Opposition parties criticised Macron. Ecologists said that despite the fact the president already promising to scrap a green fuel-tax for next year, he had said nothing about how he now intended to deal with environmental and climate change issues. The socialist Valérie Rabault said there had been no detail on how the promises would be funded and that taxpayers were likely to have to foot the bill.

“There will be tax rises elsewhere or cuts to public services, mainly in rural areas,” she said.

Jean-Luc Melenchon said a ‘distribution of money’ would not quell the protests. Photograph: Amez/Sipa/Rex/Shutterstock

The far-right politician Marine Le Pen, whom Macron beat in last year’s presidential election, said Macron still failed to protect citizens in the face of “savage” globalisation.

The leftwing Jean-Luc Mélenchon said Macron was mistaken if he thought “a distribution of money” would calm “the insurrection”.

Some on the left attacked Macron for what were deemed dog-whistle tactics by referring to immigration and French secularism in his speech. Macron had said in his speech that “the question of immigration” must be dealt with.

Laurent Berger, the head of the CFDT union, said he was concerned by what he called Macron’s incongruous reference to immigration in a speech aimed at addressing French people’s difficulty in making ends meet.

The gilets jaunes movement is made up of people from all political backgrounds – some on the far right have mentioned immigration on the barricades while those on the left do not consider it a pressing issue.

The European commission, which monitors EU members’ finances, said it would study the budgetary impact of Macron’s measures, which are expected to cost billions of euros and will push up France’s deficit.