Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday nationwide anti-tax protests in France showed that Europe “failed the exam” of democracy, human rights and freedoms.
Speaking at a rally in Istanbul, Erdogan said Europeans: “who provoked enmity against migrants and Islamophobia fell in their own ditch.”
The protests, named after the high-visibility safety jackets French motorists have to keep in their cars, erupted in November over the squeeze on household budgets caused by fuel taxes.
Demonstrations have since swelled into a broad, sometimes-violent rebellion against Macron - a challenge made more difficult to handle since the movement has no formal leader.