cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/87116
On Saturday, France saw its largest nationwide protests in years, as popular outrage over the rising cost of living converged with a month-long student movement against the country’s neglected public education system.
Nearly 800,000 people took to the streets in over 140 cities across France on Saturday, according to France’s major labor union, the CGT. The protests were made up of high school and university students who have blockaded their schools over the past month, demanding better education conditions, as well as labor unions, who mobilized workers in protest of public service cuts, and remnants of the 2018 “Yellow Vests” movement.
Mass protests during the day transformed into riots as evening fell, with multiple city halls and offices set ablaze or otherwise damaged. Police arrested some 2,400 protesters.
French leaders have placed blame on the protesters and the far left, including on the far left political party La France Insoumise (LFI), or France Unbowed. In a televised address Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron said that the riots were caused by “groups from the far left, joined by a number of delinquents and criminals,” and spoke of police who were injured.
Macron attempted to differentiate between protesters with “legitimate grievances” and those who rioted, while stating that the cost-of-living crisis began because of the war in Iran and its effect on the cost of fuel — for which, he added, France is blameless, as it has not taken part in this war.
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