It’s the stuff of nightmares for those who promote the new, dynamic France: Giant mounds of stinking garbage bags overflow from bins near the Notre-Dame cathedral in the heart of Paris, violent demonstrators in Bordeaux set fire to the majestic doors of City Hall and teargas-laced battles break out in major cities between ranks of riot police and protesters who set alight whatever they can lay their hands on.

Such images flashing on television screens across the globe show a country set back to the days of angry street protests that brought political crises and economic inertia to successive French presidents. And the trigger for this latest regression is the architect of change: Emmanuel Macron, whose stubborn insistence on ramming through an increase in the retirement age reignited labor unrest, deepened fissures in parliament, nearly brought down his government and now threatens paralysis for the four remaining years he gets to stay in office.

"We are in a dead-end, with no clear way out,” said Christelle Craplet, head of BVA Opinion, a French pollster. "This is a tense situation in which there is no majority to govern and no majority to topple the government either.”