French president Emmanuel Macron has come under renewed pressure after another weekend of violent anti-government protests, with looters smashing scores of shops and setting fire to a restaurant in central Paris.

Mr Macron was forced to cut short a skiing holiday and return to the capital as an 18th consecutive Saturday of demonstrations by the gilets jaunes, or yellow vests, turned into a riot on the Champs-Elysées. After violent protests threatened to derail his reform drive late last year, the president regained the political initiative with increases in pensions and in-work benefits and a nationwide debate on tax and public services.

Saturday’s events have once again put him on the defensive, suggesting the debate has failed to defuse public anger. “What happened today on the Champs-Elysées is no longer a demonstration,” Mr Macron told an emergency meeting with ministers on Saturday.