In Saint-Denis suburb on Monday, I met Lisa Cordat, of the FSE student union. She told me that students organised themselves for demos via social media messaging or through student-led organisations. She said it was “insulting” to suggest they were being manipulated or “told to do this, or do that” by politicians.
“Student anger comes from the ground up,” says Lisa.
But there is also a palpable frustration amongst many in France at what they see as the politicisation of Saturday’s violence. Lina, who is 25, told me: “Politicians are hunting for scapegoats but don’t ask why it all happened. The root causes of Saturday. We feel scared and abandoned.”
France’s leading politicians have indulged in a festival of finger-pointing since Saturday.
The presidential election here in six months’ time is hotly contested and the volatility on French streets funneled immediately into France’s already febrile politics.
Mélenchon, currently running in second place in most polls, ahead of centrist candidates, accused France’s centrist Prime Minister of being “responsible for the chaos” either due to “incompetence or a worst-case strategy.”
Mélonchon went on to apparently imply Mr Lecornu may have allowed the violence to unfold, so as to position itself as a “party of order”, after Saturday’s lawlessness, “that would make people forget his failure in public finances.”
France is struggling with spiralling public debt and government borrowing costs.
As for intelligence failures on Saturday, President Macron has demanded explanations and a new policing strategy. France’s Interior Minister admitted there weren’t enough officers on the streets, despite the nationwide protests being publicised well in advance. Following accusations of heavy-handedness at earlier demos, the police seemed very much out of their depth this weekend.
Of all the presidential hopefuls, it would seem Marine Le Pen of the anti-immigration, National Rally Party gains most politically from Saturday’s shocking scenes.
She is already way ahead in opinion polls. Le Pen chose to launch a presidential-looking video address to the nation via social media on Sunday. Dressed formally, behind a large desk and in front of a French flag, she blamed Jean-Luc Mélenchon by name for his associates who “look to throw the country into chaos,” she said.
She also accused the Macron government of “running out of steam”, meaning that France was “taken hostage between violence and powerlessness”.
She ended her video by reminding French voters they’d have the opportunity to “choose a different path” in 6 months time.
Le Pen’s party promotes a law and order, closed border message and, like US President Trump and Vice US President JD Vance, has blamed migrants, amongst others, for the chaos in France on Saturday.
Teacher, Mar, complained that Saturday’s violence “suits politicians’ purpose. It distracts from weeks of legitimate protests for better public services,” she said.
“Politicians aren’t listening to what the students need, or what teachers need or what the French people want. They’re using the violence to election-campaign to become president and to try to make their opponents look bad.”
But increasing numbers in France, many amongst the young Gen Z generation, say they have dwindling faith in “the system”.
That’s something we see echoed in other European countries where mainly youth-led protests erupted – some violently – this weekend in Italy, Portugal and Albania as well as France and Belgium.
These demonstrations are often triggered by spiralling living costs, deteriorating public services and a sense of powerlessness people feel over their own lives.
What can we do as individuals about our rising energy costs caused by wars far away in the Middle East or in Ukraine, many ask?
Voters increasingly say they are losing faith in traditional or governing political parties to listen to concerns and address them. The young look at climate change, social inequality, impossible housing prices and AI potentially threatening their place in the job market.
According to opinion polls conducted by this year by Pew, 69% of people in France are dissatisfied with democracy. In Spain, it’s 68% and in Italy, 62%. (The US is experiencing similar disillusionment with 69% saying they are dissatisfied with how democracy is working.)
So many people I’ve spoken to in France since Saturday’s riots emphasise the importance in making a clear distinction between angry but peaceful protestors, and those intent on wreaking violent havoc.
Politics aside, is what we’re now seeing in Europe’s protest wave perhaps a powerful cocktail of a bubbling over of frustration, cries for help for the authorities to listen but also, for some, a dark sense there’s little left to lose?
