A Peaceful March Turns Ugly
On Saturday, more than half a million mainly peaceful protesters took to the streets against rising living costs and shrinking access to decent public services, including a good state education. Things turned nasty when groups of black-clad, masked activists and vandals appeared. An estimated 1,500 shops and businesses were looted and destroyed. Riot police used tear gas and water cannon, and were seen hitting people with batons in several places. France's interior ministry said about 1,000 officers were injured on Saturday, seven of them seriously.
Rumours had spread that President Emmanuel Macron might bring in a temporary curfew in parts of the country, or even a state of emergency. Instead, he used a televised address on Sunday to call for national unity and promise that those behind the violence would be punished. The speech has been widely criticised on social media and by political opponents for lacking concrete detail. Critics want to know how rioters will be held to account, how towns and cities will be protected before new mass demonstrations in a couple of weeks, how destroyed businesses will be compensated, and when a dialogue will open with students and teachers' bodies on education.
CGT union Secretary General Sophie Binet accused Macron of ignoring students' concerns, the cost-of-living crisis and the decline of public services. He has apparently passed the baton to Lecornu, though many blame the prime minister and his interior minister for being badly prepared and under-policing the scheduled protests. Yaël Braun-Pivet, president of the lower house of parliament, wants an inquiry into what happened and why. Graffiti seen on a wall beside shattered shops in Paris on Sunday night read, "Things are dark in the city of light."
Politics Adds Fuel
Macron is widely seen as a lame-duck president, with a hotly contested race to succeed him due in six months. Marine Le Pen on the nationalist right and Jean-Luc Melenchon on the anti-capitalist left are both competing for headlines, which is adding to tension in politics as well as on the streets. Parliament is paralysed, split between three rival blocks. Investors are also pressing France to bring its spiralling public debt under control, but the government fears that cutting services or welfare will send even more angry people onto the streets.
Many people are asking whether the country is broken. The images of tear-gassed towns, apparently unimpeded looters and burning public buildings have shocked the nation, and many find the politicians' finger-pointing frustrating. "While we worry for our safety, they use this situation as a pre-presidential election political football," said teacher and father of three Edouard.
Macron and the prime minister blamed the violence on radical far-left groups and delinquents. Melenchon alleged government "incompetence." Le Pen posted a presidential-style video in front of the French flag, blaming the "Macronist administration that is out of steam, exhausted, and disoriented."
Calm Before the Next Storm
Authorities hope for some respite over the next two weeks, as students start their half-term break on Monday. But on 5 November, a cross-section of trade unions and the "yellow jacket" (gilets jaunes) movement, which staged demonstrations for over a year in 2018 during Macron's first term, have announced huge protests. France is holding its breath.
