Student anger gripping France too

When severe fuel shortages and soaring prices pushed the youth to the brink in France under Emmanuel Macron’s leadership, police action against protesting students and young people triggered widespread mob violence in the capital, Paris and its suburbs. The student and youth protests, which had been continuing for days, turned violent on Saturday after police used tear gas and batons against demonstrators, arresting large numbers of protesters and putting them behind bars. The familiar pattern of anti-social elements exploiting protest movements in France was repeated on Saturday, with widespread looting and arson reported in the capital and nearby cities. Attackers set fire to and destroyed the city hall in Limoges, a major landmark built in the 19th century. Massive protests involving around 800,000 people across various locations escalated into widespread outbreaks of violence following action by riot police to control the unrest. The government has accused far-left groups of steering the protests towards violence and accuse criminals of exploiting the situation to engage in looting. While acknowledging the sentiments of those who took to the streets to protest peacefully, President Macron has also declared that those responsible for violence and anarchy will not be tolerated.

With the country heading towards elections next year, far-right organisations and left-wing parties are seeking to exploit the severe inflation and economic stagnation left behind by Macron’s decade in power for political gain. The prevailing public sentiment is that it is Emmanuel Macron’s decade-long liberalising rule, known as Macronism that has brought the country to its present state of distress. There is widespread criticism that France, celebrated as a model of open democracy, is grappling with economic inequality and racial discrimination, while the government remains unwilling to listen to the people. This public anger, which had been building up from the grassroots, was evident in last month’s protests by school students. On September 17, students walked out of classes and took to the streets from a neglected high school in Créteil, a working-class area in southeastern Paris, raising basic concerns such as teacher shortages, inadequate infrastructure and the steady deterioration of educational standards. Within a fortnight, similar student protests had spread across French cities. With the support of parents, teachers and trade unions, high school and university students filled the streets in protest. Never in recent times has France witnessed a protest of this scale involving high school students. In Lens, northern France, where authorities responded harshly to the agitation, a student lost a hand after being struck by a grenade thrown by police. Around 6,000 students were arrested but later released because they were minors. The protesters complain that the government is more eager to suppress the demonstrations than to address the problems they have raised. While left-wing parties are extending full support to the protests, the far-right parties led by Marine Le Pen are determined to crush them by any means. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a former Socialist who now leads the far-left party La France Insoumise (Unsubmissive France), has expressed firm support for the student protests.

The US war against Iran has further strained France, which is already grappling with persistent inflation and economic stagnation. In a country renowned for its cakes and bakery industry, the sharp rise in the prices of cooking gas and other essentials has further aggravated the hardships faced by ordinary people. The deteriorating condition of schools and higher educational institutions is a particularly disturbing illustration of the economy’s decline. Under far-right rule, however, the authorities’ administrative failures are routinely blamed on immigrants and minority communities. US President Donald Trump himself, whose war against Iran has dragged the entire world into a crisis, portrays France’s predicament as the disastrous consequence of allowing immigrants to settle in the country.  For the neo-fascists, who view power merely as a means of pursuing sinister political agendas, governing is the one thing they do not know how to do. It is the citizens of their respective countries who ultimately pay the price. While France is the latest country to feature in this tragic story, the student and youth protests there also serve as a warning that the fate of others following a similar path will be no different.