Images from the violent unrest in France have travelled around the world.
asserted
Images → travel → world
Smashed shop windows, destroyed property, acts of looting and raging fires have rightly caused outrage and condemnation.
asserted
windows → smash → outrage
There are certainly opportunistic “criminal elements” who take advantage of such situations.
asserted
who → be → situations
But there is also a lot of public anger that has boiled over after it had simmered for years as living conditions have deteriorated and demands for changes have been left unanswered.
asserted
demands → be → changes
The French government has taken full advantage of these violent acts, using them to justify the overly securitised response to the protests and to avoid public scrutiny for the failure to address its own failures.
asserted
government → take → failures
The images of chaos allow those in power to pose as the defenders of a public order they have actively helped undermine.
asserted
they → allow → order
These acts of violence, however, cannot delegitimise the reasons behind the mass mobilisation of students across France.
asserted
acts → delegitimise → France
They also must not distract from the brutal police violence that has unfolded.
asserted
that → distract → violence
Fourteen-year-old Eden suffered a fractured jaw and had teeth knocked out by a tear gas grenade fired from a police launcher.
asserted
teeth → suffer → launcher
Sixteen-year-old Mael lost the sight in one eye after a suspected hit from a police rubber bullet.
asserted
Mael → lose → bullet
Fifteen-year-old Evan had a hand blown off by a police stun grenade.
asserted
hand → have → grenade
By October 14, 7,950 people had been placed in police custody since the protests began in September, 85 percent of them minors.
asserted
percent → place → them
A further 2,700 were taken into custody following the October 17 protests.
asserted
2,700 → take → protests
Yesterday, police made another 1,000 arrests.
asserted
police → make → arrests
The staggering scale of detention and the mobilisation of tens of thousands of police officers make this one of the most heavily repressed protest movements of this century.
asserted
this → make → century
But there is also the quieter violence of social deprivation that the students are protesting and that has largely been ignored in the public narrative.
asserted
that → be → narrative
Across France, the sense of growing impoverishment deepens year after year.
asserted
sense → grow → year
Poverty rates are the highest they have been since the 1990s, with 9.8 million people living under the official poverty line.
asserted
people → live → line
Meanwhile, 53 French billionaires own as much wealth as nearly half of the French population, according to Oxfam.
uncertain
billionaires → own → Oxfam
Deteriorating socioeconomic conditions have hit the French educational system hard.
asserted
conditions → deteriorate → system
In Acoua, on the island of Mayotte, the Cite du Nord secondary school was blockaded as early as August 31.
asserted
school → blockade → August
Long before protests in the Paris region attracted attention, parents and staff came out in protest to demand better learning and teaching conditions.
asserted
parents → attract → conditions
Built for 900 pupils, this school accommodates 2,300 in cramped, poorly ventilated classrooms.
asserted
school → build → classrooms
Alongside staff shortages, the school also struggles with water supply failures and unsanitary conditions in toilets.
asserted
school → struggle → toilets
In Sevran, a suburb of Paris, pupils and teachers at Blaise-Cendrars secondary school have complained since 2024 about water leaks, mould, unusable toilets, and shortages of tables and chairs.
asserted
pupils → complain → tables
At Marcelin-Berthelot secondary school in Pantin, another Parisian suburb, windows no longer open at a time when heatwaves can bring temperatures as high as 40C.
At Politzer secondary school in Bagnolet, also a Parisian suburb, staff, pupils and parents learnt in late September that the water was unsafe to drink, although it had been tested in June.
asserted
it → open → June
These are just a few examples of a countrywide trend of an educational infrastructure that is fast deteriorating, especially in impoverished areas.
asserted
that → deteriorate → areas
This is compounded by the erosion of the level of education pupils actually receive.
asserted
pupils → compound → education
According to the education ministry’s own figures, 20.2 million teaching hours were not delivered in state secondary schools in 2024–25, excluding Mayotte: almost one in 10 scheduled hours.
uncertain
hours → accord → hours
Of these, 15 million were lost because absent teachers were not replaced.
asserted
teachers → lose → these
According to French economist Lucas Chancel, since 2017, when Emmanuel Macron came to power, government spending per student has declined by 20 percent.
uncertain
spending → accord → percent
This is the structural violence French students are asking those in power to end.
asserted
students → ask → power
Instead of listening, the government has responded with repressive tactics and narrative spin.
asserted
government → listen → tactics
In his address to the public, Macron said he understood the students, but he did not express support for them the way he did for police officers.
asserted
he → say → officers
A meeting with 20 students on Friday resulted in a promise to reform the university entrance platform – not to address the students’ key demands.
asserted
meeting → result → demands
Macron has doubled down on the security “solution”, deploying 70,000 police officers and pledging to ban protests.
asserted
Macron → double → protests
He has accused the “far left” of seeking to “bring down the republic”.
asserted
He → accuse → republic
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has called on the left to “choose a side”: the Republic equated with the police, or the rioters and their “violent agenda”.
asserted
Republic → call → police
As if taking part in a protest amounted to an attack on the state.
asserted
taking → take → state
Unsurprisingly, the far right is revelling in the chaos that appears to be engulfing the country, obscuring these needs by focusing on the presumed origins of people filmed committing acts of violence.
asserted
that → revel → violence
…and 10 more, not listed.
The Aporia
