PROTESTSINFRANCE

By David Lu '26

Protests are a common occurrence nowadays With the freedom we have today, and with various nations lifting harsh restrictions, it is not uncommon for people to take to the streets to protest government regulations and laws that, to a degree, affect their lives

Before continuing, we must first understand the standard meaning of protest. A protest is usually an event or action where people gather with others to publicly express their opinions about something that is happening in society

There are a variety of reasons for a protest to occur, including worker’s rights and laws, civil rights, LGBTQ equality, racial justice, taxes, violence, and climate change which are the results of the bad public opinion about the government about the injustice happening in the community or nation Protests can also provide inspiration and a sense of being part of a larger movement and it takes on many forms, such as marches, speeches, holding signs, and confronting people. Other ways to engage in protests include advocacy for legislation, public awareness campaigns, raising funds, gaining support through social media etc but Overall, a protest’s purpose is to demand change.

Additionally, protests can be divided into 2 categories: peaceful protests and violent protests Violent protests often involve protesters utilizing weapons and physical force to gain the attention of the government, which leads to protesters and outsiders to loot shops while the police respond to calm down protests through mass arrests, illegal use of force, or curfews, which lead to even more counter-violence by the protesters.

One country that is famous for its violent protests is France.

France has a long history of protests; ever since back on 14 July 1789, violence has erupted across the country because of the heavy taxes on the commoners, leading to King Louis XVI being beheaded and the declaration of the rights of man and the citizen, followed by the country’s first constitution

Next came the Second French Revolution, known as the “Les Trois Glorieuses”, where the people overthrew monarchs that rose to power during the 19th century, such as King Charles X and Louis Philippe After witnessing the deaths of these important figures, politicians started to fear the guillotine, which was gaining popularity.

The guillotine is a device that was for executing those the people disliked, especially the ones from the middle and higher classes, and was still used until 1977, whereas later on the government decided to outlaw Capital Punishment altogether. Similarly to the ones that came during the 20th century, the cause of protests was usually centralised: the uprising of the communist ideology and the lifestyle of the working class

As for the most recent protests, clashes erupted in Paris on Monday marking May 1, in the wake of hugely unpopular changes to France’s pension system that were signed into law on the 14th of April 2023, where Emmanuel Macron and France’s Constitutional Council approved the raising of the retirement age from 62 to 64. According to CNN, around 112000 people took part in the protests in the French capital (including anarchist and communist groups), demanding the resignation of Macron or the abolishment of the pension reform, and witnessed fireworks, stones torn from the sidewalks, and other projectiles being thrown at the police and who answered with tear gas and water cannons. This led to the arrest of 291 individuals across France and the addition of more than 100 police being injured, including 19 others who suffered from serious burns The reason for the recent pension reform was because France is having a shortage of money: the government says that the current system, relying on the working population to pay for a growing age group of retirees, is no longer fit for purpose, warning that the pensions deficit would reach more than $13 billion annually by 2027.

In 1934, a protest organized by the Commune, a union composed of the working class, gathered an extraordinary 600,000 people to trigger massive strikes across the country. The protest was so problematic for the country that the union’s demands were quickly met by the government, who signed what is known today as the Matignon agreements. This was a huge victory for the working classes as salaries were raised across the board and the working week went from 48 hours to 40, with an addition of two weeks of paid holidays More recently, protests in France started to increase dramatically, mostly being the pensions reforms, which have been a thorny issue in France. Ever since 1995, weeks-long mass protests forced the government of the day to abandon plans to reform public sector pensions In another moment, around the year of 2010, a protest with millions of volunteers took place in the streets of Paris and other cities to oppose raising the retirement age by two years to 62 and in 2014 further reforms were met with widespread demonstrations

This angered a large part of the population, especially as the president enacted the reform that was attempted and abolished in the previous protest, inflaming tensions as much as their content, which focused especially on the president himself.

“I don’t think in the history of the Fifth Republic, we have seen so much rage and hatred at our president And I remember as a young student, I was in the streets of Paris in May ’68, and there was a rejection of General de Gaulle but never that personal hatred,” Moïsi, a former protestor of 1995 said And yet, despite multiple attempts from activists that took to the streets across France ever since Emmanuel Macron signed into law the pension reform bill, they all seem to not be able to have any effect towards the government’s decision According to “Le Monde” (an article that provides unbiased information about the current situation in France), around 900000 marched across the country on the Tuesday of 6th June, fewer than demonstrations in previous protests. France has always been quite famous for their multiple protests across their history, such as the price of the bread which led to the French Revolution, and with some demonstrations across the streets and some violent actions, the government will in the end listen to the public’s opinion and adjust the rules that may satisfy both parties.

It may be clear that even in the modern french society, the public’s opinion cannot be ignored forever, further enhancing the determination of the activists and volunteers to continue engaging demonstrations to one day in the future to earn what they have strived for.

This is simply how determined the people in France are to abolish the pension reform and other problems that may affect their lives, even if those laws are necessary to keep a stable society.