Why the Paris riot is happening

If all you read about it was a here's-what's-happening-on-the-street account of the ongoing Paris riot, you'd have some unanswered questions, principally, why have fuel prices spiked?

But think about it. What is front and center among the Macron administration's policy concerns?

News caught on here in the U.S. that riots broke out in Paris' acclaimed Champs-Élysées. However, they are well into their second weekend of protests. The reasoning? The French are tired of high gas taxes and elitism in general, per Axios.

This movement of discontented Frenchmen and women call themselves the Gilets Jaunes (“Yellow Vest”) movement. Last weekend, well over 280,000 protesters descended to this sacred ground in Paris. The protestors are named as such due to their wearing of "high-viz vests that French drivers are obliged to carry in case of emergencies."

French President Emmanuel Macron has prioritized combatting climate change over fiscal sanity, it appears—which explains why many French residents are rioting.
A recent poll surveying 2,000 respondents found that only 25% of those polled had a favorable view of these Macron policies–down from 29% favorability of said policies when polled in October. That doesn't spell good news for Macron.
Let me be clear: Violent protests are never the answer. Violence begets violence.

In light of these protests, however, Macron and his ilk need to reassess their so-called Climate-First agenda as it is highly unpopular. They cannot be despondent or else the French will vote in new leadership come the next election. Rightly so. 

He was marketed as a centrist when he ran for president, which proves the point that any politician - public figure, really - who doesn't forthrightly and consistently identify himself or herself as a champion of the free market (in this instance, calling for government to be completely removed from people's choices about what forms of energy to produce and consume) is going to be mushy on the matter at best, and more likely a statist to some degree or other.