PARIS, France: Paris is burning. Yet again. But this time, according to officials and analysts, it’s different. And unrest here could have a lasting impact on France… perhaps the world.
I have been covering protests in France for decades. I lived in Paris for nine years. I know that the French are very skilled at taking politics to the street. The recent upheaval has many worried.
From all the people I hear from on the ground here, the rioting has been more violent, more destructive, more profound. Domestic strife seemingly out of control.
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When I approached the bar at a brasserie near Place de la Republique, the server asked if I was an American and a journalist. After replying yes to both he concluded, “So you’ve come to cover the civil war.”
The numbers tell the tale. Some 2,500 arrests during the last weekend of clashes between protesters and police. Around 1,000 officers injured. Many hurt, some seriously, on the activists’ side. And about 3,000 businesses impacted, trashed, looted. Damage estimated over one billion dollars.
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What was most striking were the attacks on official buildings. An historic city hall in Limoges. A police headquarters in crime-ridden Marseille. An important tourist office in Lyon. Symbols of a French government under siege.
The mostly peaceful protests supporting recent student concerns, as well as working and middle-class economic worries, hijacked by those bent on anarchy. And opportunistic young crooks looking for cheap thrills.
Yes, there are immigrants and foreigners amid the rabble. Plus, those said to have ties with so-called “ultra-left” groupings. But this remains a very French uprising. Which in a way makes it even more unsettling.
Nearly ten years of rule by President Emmanuel Macron has left this country more divided, with promises unfilled, anger near the surface. And violence a real danger.
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What was also deeply troubling about the latest bout of violence — and authorities have admitted it — is that there were periods of time when parts of Paris and other cities were out of control. Shop owners were forced to fend for themselves.
All of this plum pickings for politicians on the left and right. Either sympathizing with protesters’ demands. Or calling for more law and order. Both sides slamming those in power. With presidential elections upcoming in six months, timing is everything.
With the French treasury bare, it seems the more pressing and more promising route for the current authorities is greater security.
That’s why top government officials have been speaking out about their planning for the next big protest set for this weekend. French Prime Minister Lecornu says it will be countered by a “massive police operation” backed by the military. Activists will have to choose, Lecornu went on to say, between “violence” and the French “republic.”
“Do or die” talk that still does not address the underlying problems, not just facing France but other countries as well. That’s why, in addition to the curiosity factor of everyone being intrigued by France, it could also provide some real-time lessons on how or how not to deal with a brave new world of inequality and dwindling resources.
See you at the “barricades.”
