‘Master of clocks’: Can Macron wait out a crisis of his own making?

Faced with a political crisis largely of his own making, French president Emmanuel Macron has resorted to a trademark tactic to salvage his second term: playing for time.

In his first public statement since ramming through his unpopular pensions reform without a parliamentary vote, Macron defended both the policy and the method and tried to calm public anger that has sparked spontaneous nightly protests from Paris to Rennes.