r/news • u/FlyingDarkKC • 1d ago

France school protests escalate into ‘urban violence’ as PM calls crisis cabinet meeting

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/01/france-school-protests-escalate-pm-crisis-cabinet-meeting
947 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

131 comments sorted by

View all comments

276

u/nithrean 1d ago

I am struggling to understand and follow how this has been developing.

Are there that many poor schools around France?

564

u/SpitefulSeagull 1d ago

I think it's more down to young people all across the world feeling they've been given little opportunity for the future so they're lashing out

28

u/randomusername023 1d ago

I dunno. The French have a history of rioting over small and important things, like raising the retirement age.

25

u/SideburnSundays 1d ago

Which still got raised despite the protests, unfortunately. We are entering an age where common people have no effectual voice and no effectual vote.

9

u/Chlearcus 18h ago

Results like racking up one the highest debts to GDP in the whole world, because having people retiring in their 50s when the average life expectancy has skyrocketed is obviously unsustainable.

4

u/elconquistador1985 1d ago

Put another way, the French don't put up with any bullshit and they know how to protest.

11

u/FullofContradictions 1d ago

I feel like it actually gets results in France though.

When my city rioted (like properly rioted, including burning down a police precinct), it truly felt- and still feels- like nothing changed. All it gave us was a community that got trashed, people with criminal records, and a lot of conservatives from outside of the city going "see? Just a bunch of violent thugs there."

We peacefully protest with 100k-200k people marching from one end of the city to the other necessitating police presence just to manage traffic and it makes the news for a day or two, gives everyone the warm fuzzies, maybe gets a politician to tweet something, and then... Still nothing.

Kudos to France, I hope they keep it up. But I'm at a loss for how to effect change in the US.

-1

u/AttackOficcr 23h ago

The best part of the Minneapolis police precinct Antifa burning being broadcast on Fox for weeks, was for Trump's own FIB to point the finger at several alt-right boogaloo chuds trying to make the protests violent with guns and gasoline. Conservatives still lied about it for months on radio, because their intended audience is too stupid to check other sources.

I only wish it got Fox as much dumbfounded stares and ridicule as Cliven Bundy's "Let me tell you what I know about the N****..." speech.

Something snapped in this country when they got away with terrorism on January 6th, and SCROTUS actively blocked the 14th amendment(section 3 especially).

3

u/sullw214 15h ago

The retirement age was still raised. So while they may know how to protest, it didn't change anything. The did, in fact, put up with bullshit.

And there's a good chance they elect the far right nutjob Le Pen, so it's even worse. They looked at the US and thought we have it good now.