A tense election got many French people onto the streets. But protest has a long history in France, even just in the last few decades.
Exit polls from the second round of France’s parliamentary election indicate that voters have defied expectations of a right-wing surge. Left-wing Parisians took to the streets to celebrate the result.
The leadup to the French election had been tense, with concerns of widespread civil unrest. Approximately 30,000 police had been deployed across the country following concerns that the result would lead to “mayhem”.
The French people are no strangers to protest. Over the last two decades, they’ve erupted nearly every year, for reasons both domestic, such as changes to retirement age and pensions, and international, such as the conflict between Israel and Palestine.
Another thread running through several incidents is how people perceive police. Five protests and riots have begun in response to the deaths or assaults of people at the hands of police, since Muslim boys who ran from police in 2005 were electrocuted while hiding in an electrical substation.
Many of these themes have overlapped since the COVID-19 pandemic. Successive governments have tried several times to change labour laws and raise the pension age, leading to frequent strikes.
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At the same, students have protested Israel’s actions in Gaza following Hamas’s attack on October 7, and farmers have blocked motorways to protest the taxation of diesel — all while further shooting deaths have inflamed concerns about community safety, particularly in multiracial areas.
Voters were on edge in the lead up to Sunday’s runoff election, with both left-wing and right-wing voters on the streets and a spike in violence against candidates. As the results are tallied, many are still processing exit polls that appear to indicate a split between left-wing, centrist and right-wing groups.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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