Lyon Tourist Office burned down as tens of thousands join major day of protests across France – follow live
Do these demonstrations represent something deeper for France?published at 2:27 p.m. BST
Hugh Schofield
Parisian correspondent
The question to ask about the French protests is: Are these simply the latest iteration of the country’s regularly expressed habit of taking action in the streets, or is there something deeper and more significant going on?
On one level, the movement looks a lot like what has so often happened before: the cause, the march, the destruction, the tear gas, the arrests, the cries of police brutality.
It is a form of theater with predefined scenes and a final act that plays out when everyone feels they have had enough. Almost every fall, one number or another in France follows this pattern.
But is there anything different now? Something that could make 2026-2027 one of those defining moments like May 1968, or the Paris Commune of 1870, or the social revolutions of 1848 across Europe – where the protests actually marked the start of change?
The arguments in favor of this point of view are real.
There is the inability of the French centrist government to act. There is the failed experience of 10 years of radical macronism. There is widespread disillusionment with politics as we know it.
There is the debt crisis, which, according to serious people, could lead to France defaulting. There is impoverishment induced by inflation.
There is the rise of extremes. There is war in Europe. There is Trump. There are presidential elections in France in April/May.
The world is very unstable. Things are moving.
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