The French government is hiding behind a ‘riots’ narrative

Images from the convulsive unrest successful France person travelled astir the world. Smashed store windows, destroyed property, acts of looting and raging fires person rightly caused outrage and condemnation.

There is nary azygous mentation of the motives of the perpetrators. There are surely opportunistic “criminal elements” who instrumentality vantage of specified situations. But determination is besides a batch of nationalist choler that has boiled implicit aft it had simmered for years arsenic surviving conditions person deteriorated and demands for changes person been near unanswered.

The French authorities has taken afloat vantage of these convulsive acts, utilizing them to warrant the overly securitised effect to the protests and to debar nationalist scrutiny for the nonaccomplishment to code its ain failures. The images of chaos let those successful powerfulness to airs arsenic the defenders of a nationalist bid they person actively helped undermine.

These acts of violence, however, cannot delegitimise the reasons down the wide mobilisation of students crossed France. They besides indispensable not distract from the brutal constabulary unit that has unfolded.

Fourteen-year-old Eden suffered a fractured jaw and had teeth knocked retired by a teardrop state grenade fired from a constabulary launcher. Sixteen-year-old Mael mislaid the show successful 1 oculus aft a suspected deed from a constabulary rubber bullet. Fifteen-year-old Evan had a manus blown disconnected by a constabulary stun grenade.

By October 14, 7,950 radical had been placed successful constabulary custody since the protests began successful September, 85 percent of them minors. A further 2,700 were taken into custody pursuing the October 17 protests. Yesterday, constabulary made different 1,000 arrests.

The staggering standard of detention and the mobilisation of tens of thousands of constabulary officers marque this 1 of the astir heavy repressed protestation movements of this century.

But determination is besides the quieter unit of societal deprivation that the students are protesting and that has mostly been ignored successful the nationalist narrative.

Across France, the consciousness of increasing impoverishment deepens twelvemonth aft year. Poverty rates are the highest they person been since the 1990s, with 9.8 cardinal radical surviving nether the authoritative poorness line. Meanwhile, 53 French billionaires ain arsenic overmuch wealthiness arsenic astir fractional of the French population, according to Oxfam.

Deteriorating socioeconomic conditions person deed the French acquisition strategy hard.

In Acoua, connected the land of Mayotte, the Cite du Nord secondary schoolhouse was blockaded arsenic aboriginal arsenic August 31. Long earlier protests successful the Paris portion attracted attention, parents and unit came retired successful protestation to request amended learning and teaching conditions.

Built for 900 pupils, this schoolhouse accommodates 2,300 successful cramped, poorly ventilated classrooms. Alongside unit shortages, the schoolhouse besides struggles with h2o proviso failures and unsanitary conditions successful toilets.

In Sevran, a suburb of Paris, pupils and teachers astatine Blaise-Cendrars secondary schoolhouse person complained since 2024 astir h2o leaks, mould, unusable toilets, and shortages of tables and chairs.

At Marcelin-Berthelot secondary schoolhouse successful Pantin, different Parisian suburb, windows nary longer unfastened astatine a clip erstwhile heatwaves tin bring temperatures arsenic precocious arsenic 40C.

At Politzer secondary schoolhouse successful Bagnolet, besides a Parisian suburb, staff, pupils and parents learnt successful precocious September that the h2o was unsafe to drink, though it had been tested successful June.

These are conscionable a fewer examples of a countrywide inclination of an acquisition infrastructure that is accelerated deteriorating, particularly successful impoverished areas.

This is compounded by the erosion of the level of acquisition pupils really receive. According to the acquisition ministry’s ain figures, 20.2 cardinal teaching hours were not delivered successful authorities secondary schools successful 2024–25, excluding Mayotte: almost 1 successful 10 scheduled hours. Of these, 15 cardinal were mislaid due to the fact that absent teachers were not replaced.

According to French economist Lucas Chancel, since 2017, erstwhile Emmanuel Macron came to power, authorities spending per pupil has declined by 20 percent.

This is the structural unit French students are asking those successful powerfulness to end. Instead of listening, the authorities has responded with repressive tactics and communicative spin.

In his code to the public, Macron said helium understood the students, but helium did not explicit enactment for them the mode helium did for constabulary officers. A gathering with 20 students connected Friday resulted successful a committedness to betterment the assemblage entranceway level – not to code the students’ cardinal demands.

Macron has doubled down connected the information “solution”, deploying 70,000 constabulary officers and pledging to prohibition protests. He has accused the “far left” of seeking to “bring down the republic”.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has called connected the near to “choose a side”: the Republic equated with the police, oregon the rioters and their “violent agenda”. As if taking portion successful a protestation amounted to an onslaught connected the state.

Unsurprisingly, the acold close is revelling successful the chaos that appears to beryllium engulfing the country, obscuring these needs by focusing connected the presumed origins of radical filmed committing acts of violence. Some far-right politicians person denounced the “hordes of thugs of overseas origin”, others person called for broader powers to portion radical of their citizenship.

This rhetoric serves Macron’s governmental campy good arsenic it allows it to contiguous itself erstwhile again arsenic the past defence against the acold right, asking the wide colonisation to rally down retired of fearfulness alternatively than due to the fact that of its governance record. Voters are offered an progressively bleak prime betwixt those who person fuelled their choler and those seeking to crook it into radical hatred.

At this point, it is wide the authorities does not look funny successful genuinely addressing the demands of the students is successful the cards. Doing truthful would mean confronting the priorities of Macron’s presidency: protecting the wealthiness of the fewer and abandoning the many.

Instead, the authorities volition hold for the question to exhaust itself, beryllium weakened by fearfulness oregon beryllium discredited by unrest, until it dies retired connected its own.

This strategy, however, is simply a failed one. Even if this protestation question fizzles out, a caller 1 volition soon regenerate it. The French radical cannot beryllium frightened into complacency everlastingly portion their surviving conditions proceed to deteriorate.

The views expressed successful this nonfiction are the author’s ain and bash not needfully bespeak Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.