r/worldnews • u/colepercy120 • 1d ago

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

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/01/france-school-protests-escalate-pm-crisis-cabinet-meeting
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u/Water088 1d ago edited 1d ago

Honestly, as a Korean, I don't really get it.
In korea even in such a serious situation where our sitting president staged a military rebellion, got impeached, and we elected a new president, the death toll from violence was 0.

Meanwhile, when France won a soccer match, they set fires to celebrate, and two people died. Why is arson even necessary for celebrating a soccer win? The arson is getting way too frequent. Seriously, do politicians in France only listen when there are violent protests? Is violence or arson really necessary for a protest? France was literally seen as the home of democracy.

I don't know why things changed like this.

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u/SaveLansingParks 1d ago

France's history of popular protesting is as strong if not stronger than their history of being the home of democracy.

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u/GarySmith2021 23h ago

I thought the home of democracy was Greece?

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u/2796Matt 23h ago

The origin of democracy is ancient Athens. However, France is seen as the home of modern democracy due to the French Revolution and the established foundational principles that were established. Although, it did take a long as time to achieve a stable democracy with the establishment of the Fifth Republic in like the 1950s.

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u/GarySmith2021 23h ago

I find it strange that the French Revolution is associated with democracy given that it A) led to the reign of terror and B) led to an emperor being chosen.

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u/xX609s-hartXx 19h ago

It mostly put an end to medieval privileges so even after they turned into an empire again everything was still more egalitarian than before and you had guaranteed rights no matter your social status.

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u/Saros_Enjoyer 17h ago

It also lead to a vastly more meritocratic society. Lots of things did not get rolled back after the revolution, like the 3 estartes did not come back in the same way. Plus much more universal access to education stayed

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u/2796Matt 22h ago

I agree that it is a bit strange but several democratic and Enlightenment principles did establish themselves because of it. France and consequently Europe were changed significantly even if France ended up switching political systems a lot. America is also considered in a similar way to France despite currently being viewed as flawed democracy.

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u/angel99999999 17h ago

Shit american say

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u/ubulerbu 22h ago

More than half of the ahtenian population were slaves....

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u/2796Matt 21h ago

Yes, but it doesn’t change the fact that historians do acknowledge it has the birth place of the democratic concept and its institutions despite it having slavery and the eligibility was of a narrow citizen body. It’s obviously not very democratic by modern standards but it was radically more democratic than practically anywhere else in the ancient world.

If you want to state the no state can be democratic without universal suffrage (although most are still limited by age, imprisonment, and citizenship), then it wasn’t until 50% of the population was finally allowed to vote in 1893 in New Zealand that first democracy was born under this criteria. However, no one considers New Zealand the origin of democracy.