To think the French students are out of control?

As we keep saying the people burning are not the same group as the people protesting.

One triggered the other, at the very least, but it isn't that binary anyway.

Bullshit. Burning everything down and looting is not, ‘doing something about it.’ It’s just common or garden criminality.

This is one person though. You cannot determine who/what organisation is behind something by that.
But thank you for sharing it !

"Most, probably nearly all, were there for left-wing political reasons."

What are you basing this on? Have you talked to them?

Then the people protesting might want to go home. In protest their protest has been hijacked.

Yes, it is binary.
The thugs just join in to cause chaos.

It is also a completely unverifiable poster. Neither we - nor Mumsnet moderators - have any way of knowing who this person is, or what agenda they might have.

You’re right about immigration. It’s not the cause of the violence.

Everything else you say is profoundly wrong. This is organised political violence with the LFI and other left groups behind it. The French interior ministry and Lecornu have both blamed the left. I imagine they’re better briefed than you.

Ha! Nice try but I've seen plenty of white kids carrying the flag, its the fashionable cause at the moment among the left, it used to be trans, but that seems to have dropped off a little.

Who are you talking about here? @KathleenDarleenDayKnight?

You’ve got the carnage already, not sure why you’re certain on what will happen. Why do you think there won’t be greater backlash if Le Pen gets in?

I’m basing it on a variety of things, including that that’s what the French authorities say. But if you think France is like Russia or Iran and the French state just makes shit up, do tell us.

What the Far Right are doing is weaponising the unrest, and using it to push the same old line that anything and everything is about immigration.

It is horse shoe theory in action: anti semitic and islamophobic conspiracy being pushed by the extremes and the protestors’ legitimate concerns being lost in the midst of it.

You can see it on this thread - posters in France are describing what they are actually seeing and experiencing and they are being shouted down and told they are wrong by people miles away, based on something on extremist influencers from one side or another have circulated online.

I was talking about the rioters, not anyone who carries a Palestinian flag, which I said myself is pretty general, not a far left thing. I know very few people who aren't sympathetic to Palestine actually. Are you not?

I know there have been riots here, I just don’t think we need even more of that.

Peaceful protests happen here, too.
I don’t think that’s what people have in mind when they celebrate the French revolutionary spirit.

No, I’m talking about the author of the tweet - we have absolutely no idea who they are, so I don’t think sharing their unverifiable post is helpful.

It'd be better to ask the rioters themselves!
And by French authorities, who do you mean? Is Macron saying the rioters are serious protestors for the far left rather than mindless thugs?

The majority of the protests were peaceful and brought together normal people of all ages, including firefighters, who just have enough of the daily struggle with the cost of living and are simply exercising their right to protest.

But in the news the focus is on destruction and that is not a fair representation of what is happening.

I also despair that people are more upset that a Vuitton store might be looted (a company that makes millions and will just be covered by insurance) that the fact that a large part of the population is fed up and struggling and that kids are worried about education, the environment and their future in general.

It really says it all about some people's priorities....

As for the people on this thread with an agenda who are trying to blame 'the left' or young people who have immigrant backgrounds: pathetic.

And by the way French people include people who are black or brown. They are not 'immigrants'. They are born in France and French nationals.

The Palestine flag is being used a symbol for peace and a symbol for extreme violence.
It is time to stop people using it.
I would consider myself centre leaning to the right. I will no longer be accepting the right wing violent rhetoric from the left. They haven’t a leg to stand on, violent bleeding heart brigade,

Wasn’t there a Mayor protesting a week or two ago? He was laughing alongside people trashing stuff. When the people running the place don’t care then I’m not surprised the civilians feel the same.

How do you know who is in France and who isn’t?

We don’t know anything about the posters who say they’re in France. The French authorities are, er, in France and they blame the left.

None of this is to suggest that the right doesn’t act violently or create disorder (and we’ve seen some nasty crap here from right-wing balaclava wearers). But in these riots, with the widespread appalling violence and arson, it’s the French left.

You can’t see the destruction?

It is likely some peaceful student protestors who have a legitimate case for needing more investment but it’s obvious there is rioting, looting and fires.

You have seen that part? That’s the weapon part, not a thread on mumsnet.

The French interior ministry is saying it, and Lecornu.

And anyone who doesn't realise this is has very simple thinking.

Protests about education funding, my left buttock!

It may, may, have started like that but a quick glance at those burning down the heritage and shops of France show that they are not French schoolchildren. They are those who have no love for France or western civilisation.

What on earth is that awful Greta Thunberg doing there: is she suddenly concerned about French educational resources?

Why are some of these "schoolchildren" wearing Palestinian colours?

It's a real riddle isn't it?

As to protesting about a lack of teachers?

Well, I wouldn't teach in certain areas of France where, to show a picture of Mohammed, might earn me the same fate as Samuel Paty and nor should anyone else.