The violence of the streets of Paris looked like rage. It revealed a society that will take years to heal
There is despair in France over how to stop a violent upheaval turning into a social collapse. The breakdown in order is so widespread, that it is impossible to turn away with a Gallic shrug.
“It’s always the same ones – they hate France, they hate everything,” says one Parisian near the Place de la Republique. “They accuse French people of being racist. And they just want to burn everything, to break everything because they are not happy.”
It is impossible to find neat dividing lines in this disorder, because some of the looted stores were owned by migrants and some of the rioters were from white backgrounds. But it is also difficult to pin everything on a complaint about the cost of living or school standards. On the street, the violence looked like primal rage.
The French state is in poor shape to offer a brighter future for young people who display so much raw anger. The nation’s parliament has been paralysed since Macron called elections two years ago that left no party in clear control of the National Assembly. The government has been unable to pass any meaningful economic or budget reform.
Nothing highlights the impasse like the division over pension reform. While Macron enacted laws to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64, this was shelved last year after a backlash in parliament. Le Pen has previously backed cutting it to 60.
