lighten the atmosphere of anger

[keramus]

Hello everybody

Because of the economic crisis in my country, many storekeepers have decided to close their stores in protest against this situation.
Will the president be able to lighten the atmosphere of anger among them?

Does the sentence sound correct in English?

Can I use the highlighted part in journalism?

Please tell me your opinion.

P.S: I mean "to calm the anger among storekeepers"

 

[Uncle Jack]

Not really. While you can "lighten an atmosphere", the thing that makes it "heavy" is usually undue seriousness or sadness. An "atmosphere of anger" might be said to be tense rather than heavy, so "ease" might be a better verb.

 

[dojibear]

I agree with #2. "Ease" is better. Note that "lighten" has two meanings:

1- make less heavy in weight ("light/heavy")
2- make less dark in color ("light/dark")