by Ilya Maximov
[Regnum] The largest mass protests and strikes since the beginning of autumn took place yesterday in France. The government assures that it has heard the protesters and is ready for dialogue, but talk alone will not solve the accumulated problems.
According to official figures from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, approximately 575,000 people took to the streets; some media outlets, citing authorities, reported more than 600,000. The CGT trade union, one of the organizers of the nationwide strike that accompanied the demonstration, insisted that the total number of participants was approximately 1.6 million.
Discrepancies in figures between official and unofficial sources are common, but even the government estimate was higher than the figures for October 17, when street protests degenerated into pogroms and looting. Given their experience and the scale of the events, the authorities deployed approximately 70,000 police officers across the country to maintain law and order, as well as armored vehicles, drones, and helicopters.
The participants were extremely diverse: students and schoolchildren, teachers, railway workers, postal workers, medical workers, energy workers, pensioners, and many others. Students in their 20s, young professionals, older workers, and pensioners protested side by side.
Their demands are varied: higher wages and pensions, increased spending on education and social services in general, and the creation of additional places at universities. At the same time, everyone, without exception, complains about the rising cost of living and that the government is not listening to them.
In general terms, the main reasons for discontent are fairly simple: the impoverishment of the population amid soaring prices and a sense of injustice. The official reason was the draft 2027 budget, which calls for a freeze on social spending and public sector optimization, which would entail job cuts.
"Everything is growing except wages and pensions. The anger is great," said a joint statement from the CGT, CNT, and UNEF trade unions, whose support played a significant role in the record-breaking turnout set yesterday.
A student participating in the demonstration explained his reasoning to Al Jazeera: "People are protesting because they feel their future is under threat." A historian from Lille put the reason even more bluntly: "There is money in society, but it's in the hands of a small group, and we must fight to change that."
"It's hard to make ends meet on a salary that hasn't been properly reviewed for years," a Parisian nurse told The Guardian.
The general strike didn't completely paralyze the country, but it did hit sensitive areas. Transportation, industry, and various public institutions and tourist attractions, including the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, were disrupted.
Overall, the day was calmer than October 17, but serious clashes with the police were still not avoided. After all, what's a source of discontent for some is an excuse for others to start more street fights, to loot shop windows or simply to get nervous.
In Paris, Lyon, Orleans, Pau, Rennes, and several other cities, police were pelted with whatever they could find, including metal pétanque balls. A school burned down near Toulouse, and firefighters received at least 86 calls in connection with the unrest.
As a result, 448 people were detained, and 53 police officers were injured. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, whose resignation the French president refused to accept, stated that law enforcement officers "acted with courage and determination."
Meanwhile, the very deployment of tens of thousands of law enforcement officers sparked strong opposition from protesters. France's oldest nongovernmental human rights organization, the Human Rights League, declared an "authoritarian shift" aimed at "suppressing any dissent."
At the same time, most protesters were concerned with much more mundane issues. "The police are everywhere, but where is the funding for other public services?" asked a social worker from a Paris suburb who spoke to The Guardian.
Meanwhile, the authorities are persistently trying to pretend that they are ready to accommodate the protesters.
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced a special conference on November 9 to discuss the demands put forward by the protesters. Macron also acknowledged the validity of many of the protesters' concerns, proposing to address them in a "democratic debate."
But promises, conferences, and roundtables are unlikely to help here. And finding budgetary funds to even partially fulfill existing wishes will be very difficult.
Record-high public debt, which continues to grow amid declining GDP, has already caused a significant deficit in the state treasury. The cost of servicing government loans already stands at a record €79.2 billion and could rise to €91 billion next year, forcing further cuts to other spending.
For example, the authorities are currently considering raising the minimum wage, which is being demanded by demonstrators, but with a budget deficit growing year after year, there is no way to meet other expectations: raising pensions, ending cuts to social spending, lifting caps on public sector wage growth, and so on.
Moreover, the current approach to the unrest sweeping the republic doesn't satisfy another segment of society—the affluent French, who, unlike the protesters, have something to lose. They criticize both the protesters and the government, but try to remain muted, mindful of how brutal the French Revolution can be.
"Today we deplore the government's inaction on the one hand, and the support of these protests by some trade unions and politicians in order to secure votes on the other," the owner of a ransacked Parisian bakery, which opened just two weeks before the mass demonstrations began, told the NYT.
This opinion is shared by Alexandre Bompard, chairman of the board of directors of the French retail chain Carrefour, one of Europe's largest retailers. "The Republic must protect its traders!" he said in a comment to Business Insider.
The government's attempts to pander to the protesters' aspirations amid widespread economic problems have also drawn sharp criticism. "Under the pretext of buying social peace on the streets, we will create chaos in the workplace," Patrick Martin, president of MEDEF (France's largest employers' association), told BFMTV.
The government finds itself caught between two fires: if it concedes on raising the minimum wage and social spending, businesses warn of the threat of bankruptcy and investor flight; if it refuses, trade unions, students, and the "yellow vests" will continue their strikes, and the opposition will gain ground.
However, as practice shows, even partially meeting the protesters halfway does not guarantee an end to their actions.
For example, students at the schools where the autumn wave of protests began were promised around 3,000 additional teachers to fill the staffing shortage. They also promised a reduction in class sizes, a further increase in staffing levels next year, and the allocation of €4 billion in loans for the reconstruction of educational institutions.
Under the current circumstances, finding funds to meet the needs of schoolchildren, their parents, and teachers was likely difficult. Ultimately, however, it was to no avail, as the ranks of protesters continue to grow, and the protests themselves become more widespread.
The protest organizers and participants themselves seem to understand perfectly well that even with the best will in the world, the authorities will be unable to satisfy most of their demands. In response to the president's call for discussion, they denounce the authorities and declare that what's happening now is just the beginning.
"This is just the beginning. If the government and employers don't respond to our demands, we will obviously continue," CGT union leader Sophie Binet threatened in an interview with The New York Times.
The fact that such large-scale protests are taking place six months before the presidential election only adds to the urgency of the situation. Politicians involved in the presidential race are trying to exploit the crisis—and with some success.
National Rally leader Marine Le Pen continues to lead the polls, promising to find a political response to the social crisis. Apparently, this refers to her plans to reduce France's share of the EU budget, which would, if not halt, then at least slow the economic decline.
The second-most popular candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the parliamentary faction "France Insoumise," also spoke in defense of the protesters. He called the situation a "crisis of the regime" and, as befits a far-left politician, described the unrest as "a part of the life of any society."
However, there are no longer any simple ways out of the situation in which the country has found itself at the behest of Macron and his henchmen.
"Whoever wins the presidential election will have a lot of problems to deal with," political scientist Paul Smith, an associate professor at the University of Nottingham, told the AP.
Therefore, for any candidate, a coveted victory could turn into a headache that will quickly make them forget their success. Such is the difficult legacy of Macronism.