What on earth is happening in France?

[DangerQuakeRhinoSnake]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9zrdmxp4vy6o

This has really shocked me, awful reports coming out of France. I'm unsure as to exactly why the students are protesting and attacking teachers, and what the govt is going to do about it. Presumably this has been brewing for a while. Are people just angry in general and looking for excuses to riot?

Looks so close to societal breakdown from what I've seen online. Very scary and very sad.

It's not the French people though rioting, it's predominantly the immigrant population of France, whipped up by far-left agitators and pro-palestine sympethisers.

Before or after the Celine Dion gig?

Wonder who he's going to blame for all this? Not the failings of himself or his barely functional government. Most likely the far-right, Le Pen, etc.

@Traveller1987 I just watched it on the journal de 20h on the France télévisions youtube. It was nine minutes of nothing really.

Calme...
Discours...
Soutien...
Pas de place...
Les commerçants et artisans...
Les lycéens...
Avenir...

Then, of course,

Élections dans six mois!

Vive La France!

(Quick blast of La Marseillaise, slow pan out shot of L'Elysee by night, tastefully floodlit.)

The End.

I have just seen a picture of M Macron on the front page of Le Monde. Pas Un homme heureux

This is Macron's speech dubbed in English:

Latest demo in the same vein planned for UK.
The International Youth Day of Action
Date: Friday, November 20, 2026
Location: Trafalgar Square
Context: Leaflets and posters have recently begun circulating calling on UK students and workers to gather for a mass demonstration. While heavily featuring pro-Palestinian imagery, the core messaging focuses on classic anti-capitalist and anti-establishment themes—specifically demanding that public funds be redirected away from Western defense spending and military rearmament and into jobs and education instead.

This is the type of protest that lead to all the rioting in Paris.
Organised by Far Left thugs and Trotskyists.

Anyone with any sense should keep out of London on that day.🤔

After their recent falls in the polls, Reform will be rubbing their hands in glee at this.

Curfews now in the major cities. Mainly just affecting, "Sensitive areas" and, "Minors" but with big fines and the promise that they will be strictly enforced.

Oh dear.

We have the best universities in Europe.
what exactly are they potentially protesting about?

And if they don’t want money spent on defence, do you actually think we could rely on any of them to protect us if Russia were to invade? My guess is they would be the first to run for the hills.

Looks like the far right got what they wanted. Strict authoritarian lockdowns on freedom of movement for disaffected youths. Putin must be rubbing his grubby hands with greed. It might be time to start taking asylum cases from French citizens of minority ethnic background, its about to get really bad for them in the next few years.

What a horrible state of events 😮‍💨

It's interesting what gets classified as far right these days:
A balanced budget- that's far right
An immigration policy that controls both who and what number of people that enter the country- that's far right
A growing economy or indeed even individual ambition, that's far right.
Respect for the police , that's far right
Objecting to rioting and looting, now that's far right too.

Sadly we seem to have reached a state of affairs where a section of society (that worryingly are allowed to vote) seems to think that looting a Louis Vuitton shop makes them a freedom fighter and is really "sticking it to the man".

The people aren't rioting for any old reason, these are not football hooligans. This is about student's rights to a fair and balanced education, this is about Palestine and about racism in French society. The youth of France are rising up against the older people who squeeze them dry of their humanity on a daily basis to fund their insatiable greed. Their future has been stolen, and now they want to burn it all down in response.

They should have seen this coming. Soon it will be our turn, and we should be trying to make amends with our youth right now.

At least the French get shit done. Their government tried to raise their pension age, they all said no and it didn’t happen. Over here we just accept the progressive enshitification of everything, roll over and say there’s nothing we can do it’s just life.

And exactly how does looting the Louis Vuitton, Apple and numerous small owner
shops help resolve the Palestinian issue, end racism and help students with investment in education?

What it will do however is make the 2027 election easier for Marine Le Pen and then the left will really have something to protest against, except they won't be protesting as they will face very lengthy prison sentences for doing so.

And now they have no money and are facing the highest bond yields on Government debt than any other country in Europe.

And now borrowing is too high to do much about education demands, they have rioting and destruction and higher debt costs still.

It’s all made up bollocks though isn’t it? We could have just designed our societies better differently

If the far right somehow win then the left and immigrant population will unite and rise up against them, and if I know my history, the left always win against evil. We are the side of truth to power after all.

The reasons for the original protests are well funded: not enough teachers, no cover for absent teachers, loss of long periods of teaching, long hours, not enough support for learning towards university entry.... that is what the Guardian reported, but I do not know anyone in the ground.
Other protestors joined the stufents, due to similar issues and the cost of living crisis, later leading to riots.
Spain is protesting due to the costs of housing, sparked by an 85 year old dying within two weeks after being evicted from the flat where she lived for 70 years. She paid her rent, on time, good tenant. A company bought the building and hiked the rent to more than double.
Portugal is protesting, joining the housing crisis protests.
We are all under so much pressure from the raise in prices, the slow and lacking health service, the ever decaying education system, the impossibility of making ends meet, the lack of work and opportunities for young people.
This could spread further and become a beginning of a revolution.
Corporations, banks, politicians, billionaires... they keep getting higher and higher profits at our cost and it is not going unnoticed.

Yes, for the centre-left to socialist spectrum, but not for the far left. The far left is as bad as the far right. From the same history book.
I am just hoping for a moderate left that can bring togetherness and community back into life, for the good of us all.

Powerful article here by an eyewitness to the riots, a British writer and church leader working in France. He mixes personal experience with a deep look at the reasons and groups behind the violence – including aspects of French culture and history that have added fuel to the flames.

It's gone viral in the past 24 hours, because lots of people are finding it a helpful explanation of what's going on.

www.flaneurnotes.com/post/the-french-being-french-what-s-behind-the-riots

So you don’t think burning cities and ruining people’s livelihoods is evil? You would be happy for your town to burn just because the left and immigration population don’t like the right?
You would support the burning of schools?
what a strange way of thinking.

As long as it is someone else's towns and businesses being burnt down all is well. Apparently.

The poster is a troll. I know troll hunting isn't allowed on here, but in this case it is different because the poster has already cheerfully said, on other threads, that she is posting deliberately exaggerated left wing viewpoints "sarcastically" and the other more right wing posters have praised her on how realistic it is etc and asked which of her left wing posts get the most likes etc. Some of those other posters are now replying to her now as if her views are genuine. So it's a "parody" of annoying views meant to get a reaction (aka trolling) I don't see the point in replying as if in a genuine debate personally.

@PotteringPondering Thankyou for the article. I've read it quickly once and will have to read it again tonight but he was pretty much spot on, in my opinion and very even handed in his appraisal.

He could have gone a little bit further into the geo politics of it all but I can understand why he didn't.

2nd night of curfews.