'There's More Anger On The Ground' In France After Weekend Of Violent Protests—What Happens Next?

I really appreciate you joining me today because all eyes are on France right now.

Protests have roiled cities across France since mid-September, but this weekend marked a really staggering escalation.

The world witnessed images of historic buildings lit on fire, torched vehicles, storefronts completely destroyed, and the shops inside looted.

The initial movement largely originated with high school-aged students, but since the demonstrations broke out last month, Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets, and this weekend alone, around 2,400 of them were arrested.

So to start off the conversation, if you could, talk to us about the origins of these protests.

What caused them, A, and B, what led them to devolve into something so much more widespread?

Absolutely.

Thank you so much.

Well, as you laid out in your opening, you're exactly right that this started with protests led by students over school conditions, the conditions of actual classrooms, the lack of teachers or missing teachers.

In some cases, even rats in classrooms or classrooms that weren't up to providing cooling and insulation for students.

However, that has grown or was joined by other frustrations that happened at the same time.

So at the same time as we had the return to school and frustration with classrooms, France has continued to suffer from the energy shock that has hit across Europe.

You know, since the closing of the Strait of Hormuz on and off in the war in Iran, energy prices have skyrocketed in Europe, diesel prices have gone up, and France has really suffered from that, in some cases more than some other countries in Europe.

And at the same time, France's political system right now has been facing a hung parliament and a pretty weak government for years.

All of this heading into an election that comes in about six months from now and with a budget that needs to be passed currently for 2027.

And that budget in order to manage the debt and deficit situation France has found itself is really quite an austerity budget.

So all of these factors have come together Uh, really at the same time, you know, we saw a squeeze from the cost of living.

We saw a fiscal vice and austerity pressure during this squeeze when conditions are already difficult, having a budget that proposes to cut spending further, including, uh, cuts to public sector salaries for the fourth time in a row.

Uh, visible state institutions that are not meeting people's needs.

Political paralysis.

that comes from the hung parliament and a pretty weak centrist government under Macron.

The last few months of a lame duck presidency for Macron.

And then from the protest itself, we've seen a few accelerants that I think have added fuel to the fire, so to speak, from this past weekend and will likely play into the forthcoming protests in the coming weeks.

And so that would be the police response, which we have seen in some instances cases of probably excessive force, and then external noise, including from President Trump, that really brought in a sort of immigrant focus and closing the borders focus of the conversation.

So all of these factors came together this past weekend and will continue to play out in the weeks ahead.