French President Emmanuel Macron's government deployed tear gas, water cannons, and riot police against tens of thousands of its own citizens Saturday, as protests over soaring living costs and police brutality swept the country — the same European elite class that never misses a chance to lecture the world about democratic values.
More than 32,000 protesters took to the streets in some 140 actions outside Paris alone, with over 160 detained nationwide, according to France's interior ministry. The demonstrations — uniting students, yellow vest veterans, and major trade unions — expose the fault line running through Western Europe: working people crushed by inflation while their governments reach for the truncheon.
"At the end of the month, I have nothing left. Prices are going up but wages aren't," said Franck, a civil servant protesting in the central town of Gueret. "We can't take it anymore, we're suffocating." Around 45 percent of French people now cite cost of living and inflation as their top worry, according to a recent survey of 2,000 people cited by Breitbart.
In Paris, police fired water cannons and tear gas after hundreds of masked protesters confronted them; metro stations across the city center were shut down at police request. In Marseille, protesters rammed the door of the mayor's offices with security barriers and broke in before being forced out. Bins and electric scooters were set alight. In Rennes, demonstrators built barricades from trash bins and pallets.
The protests follow four weeks of student demonstrations over overcrowded classrooms, teacher absences, and outdated facilities. But what has inflamed the public beyond economics is the state's response. A 15-year-old schoolboy allegedly lost an eye after being struck by a police rubber bullet. A 14-year-old reportedly lost his hand after picking up a police stun grenade. Both cases remain under investigation. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told France's Senate that 36 investigations into alleged police violence have been opened — four involving mutilating injuries, six significant injuries, and others involving alleged blows, insults, and sexual violence.
Nuñez suspended use of certain stun grenades against young demonstrators after the hand injury. But on Friday, he announced the suspension would be lifted for Saturday's protests if "serious urban violence" occurred — a threshold the state itself defines. Euronews reported Nuñez saying stun grenades were "never used when things are going well."
Macron, speaking from Brussels, offered the familiar double talk: "There is a constitutional right to protest and to express oneself, and I have always been vigilant and attentive that that right is fully respected," he said. "But this right comes with the need to respect. Respect for people, respect for property." He denounced as "unacceptable" anyone present "solely to cause damage and create unrest."
The CGT, one of France's major labor unions, backed Saturday's protests, demanding "higher wages and pensions, lower prices and the protection of public services that meet people's needs," according to Breitbart. The yellow vest movement — which first erupted in 2018 against fuel tax hikes and social injustice — called for "yellow and youth" demonstrations, appealing to teachers, students, workers, pensioners, and farmers.
CNN noted the unrest is not confined to France. Students marched in Brussels against Belgium's education system. In Tirana, Albania, protesters threw Molotov cocktails at riot police after months of demonstrations. In Tunis, thousands demonstrated against President Kais Saied over economic mismanagement. Wherever working people push back against the managed decline of their countries, the state's answer is the same.
A 47-year-old carpenter and former yellow vest protester in Rennes, identified as Christophe, told AFP he was driven to protest by what he saw as police brutality against teenagers. "We've reached the point where the repression is targeting our own children," he said.
The question now is whether the truncheon can outlast the outrage. France's presidential election looms, and the same government that suspended the grenades that maimed children just authorized their return. The people in the streets are the same ones Macron's ministers say they serve. One of those propositions is a lie.
