It seems to me that Macron deemed the case for a punitive increase in fuel taxes had already been made on the basis of AGW. And it's obvious that a large likely plurality voters see it as a scam.. a political and ideological agenda by an eco-pagan cult deeply antipathetic to the human cause which it views as a pestilence on a utopian natural order.
Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau are the last standing liberal, globalist, eco fanatic heads of state in the West. Merkel has already announced her intent to leave after a series of defeats to nationalist and populist forces; Macron's popularity is plunging to historic lows and; Justin Trudeau is in his last year of office. It's also obvious that the frustration levels have reached the point of violent reaction as the political establishments and structures resist real progress and change.
The Paris riots stem from more than the fuel price hikes. They are the result of escalating frustration at the failure of the entire global, free trade, monetarist, laissez-faire, multicultural paradigm that has ruled the world with increasingly arbitrary and ruthless protocols for 7 decades. The EU itself is a product of such. They have produced deindustrialization, cultural fragmentation, economic stagnation and wealth polarization.. all under the aegis of economic and societal pseudoscientific klans (like AGW, Economic Liberalism, Culture of Death [feminism, homosexuality, euthanasia]).