I bet your weekend was better than Emmanuel Macron’s.
asserted
weekend → bet → Macron
On Friday, the evening before mass protests that were planned across France, he attended a Céline Dion concert in Paris with his wife, Brigitte, prompting comparisons to Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette.
asserted
he → plan → XIV
On Sunday evening, he was forced to give a televised speech condemning the “unbridled violence” and riots that erupted in French cities over the weekend.
asserted
that → force → weekend
The rioters that burned makeshift barricades of bicycles in Paris, destroyed the steeple of Limoges’ town hall and set fire to Lyon’s tourism office were described as “LE CHAOS” on the front page of La Tribune Dimanche, and “SCENES D’INSURRECTION” on Le Parisien Dimanche.
asserted
that → burn → Dimanche
By Sunday, protests had also taken place in Spain, Portugal and Italy.
asserted
protests → take → Spain
Today’s newsletter explains what happened in France over the weekend, and why this crisis threatens to engulf Macron’s government.
asserted
crisis → explain → government
Pope Leo told a crowd gathered in St Peter’s Square on Sunday that he would “gradually resume” his activities, at his first appearance before the faithful since undergoing an operation to remove a cancerous tumour from his lung.
asserted
he → tell → lung
A “well-known individual” is trying to secure a permanent injunction against the Guardian and ITN to prevent them from publishing details of serious allegations made against him.
asserted
individual → know → him
Donald Trump fired his immediately embattled new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, on Friday evening after just five days in the job.
asserted
Trump → fire → job
The conservative commentator becomes the shortest serving occupant of the role in US history.
asserted
commentator → become → history
A Reform UK mayor is under police investigation for allegedly showing “naked and sexualised” images of himself to a female member of staff.
uncertain
mayor → show → staff
Luke Campbell, a former Olympic boxing champion, is understood to have been questioned under caution by Humberside police.
asserted
Campbell → understand → police
The development of a huge AI datacentre hailed by the UK government has received a fresh setback after Microsoft pulled out of the project over concerns about power supplies.
asserted
Microsoft → hail → supplies
In depth: ‘Gen-Z is really facing a polycrisis of different issues’
asserted
Z → face → issues
In the early hours of Sunday, cleaners started to remove the detritus from Parisian streets: shards of glass from broken shop windows, smashed bus shelters, burned out cars.
asserted
cleaners → start → windows
The smell of teargas still lingered in the Métro station at Place de la République.
asserted
smell → linger → République
“Areas of Paris looked like a wasteland,” Paolo Stuppia, a sociologist at Sciences Po in Paris, tells me.
asserted
Stuppia → look → me
About 855 people have been arrested in Paris, and a total of 2,400 have been arrested across France.
asserted
arrested → arrest → France
Lamia El Aaraje, the Socialist deputy mayor of Paris, said the capital had experienced a level of violence “we had never seen before.
asserted
we → say → violence
There have been so many incredible images of destruction (see our gallery here) that it’s possible to forget Saturday was, for the most part, defined by peaceful protests.
asserted
Saturday → see → protests
Hundreds of thousands of people, many of them schoolchildren and parents, joined marches across the country.
asserted
many → join → country
A far smaller group of protesters, many wearing face masks, smashed street furniture and torched cars and bus stops.
asserted
many → wear → cars
A third group took the opportunity to loot shops.
asserted
group → take → shops
“I saw teenagers running off with shoeboxes, clothes, and perfume,” Angelique Chrisafis, the Guardian’s Paris correspondent, tells me.
asserted
Chrisafis → see → me
It’s the second group that has dominated the headlines.
asserted
that → ’ → headlines
On Saturday afternoon, people set the town hall in Limoges alight (its spire collapsed dramatically on Saturday evening), and broke into the city hall in Marseille.
asserted
spire → set → Marseille
“It wasn’t as if the peaceful protesters suddenly turned violent,” Chrisafis says.
asserted
Chrisafis → turn → ?
“It was as if the government didn’t have a hold on the situation, and suddenly, the police were really caught off guard.”
asserted
police → have → guard
The peaceful protesters ‘Our future is being stolen from us’
When a small number of people break the law during otherwise peaceful protests, there’s a tendency to condemn such acts as “criminality, pure and simple” (to quote David Cameron during the 2011 London riots), and to disqualify the idea they represent a form of antagonism against authority.
asserted
they → steal → authority
“If everything was going well in France, you wouldn’t have young kids ransacking stores,” Stuppia says.
asserted
Stuppia → go → stores
Such criminal acts can also become a means of undermining peaceful protesters.
asserted
acts → become → protesters
“Some of those people are now pretty upset because they believe the government will be talking about burning barricades rather than the fact they turned out in such large numbers,” Chrisafis says.
asserted
Chrisafis → believe → numbers
French students have been protesting against the school system since September and calling for repairs to decrepit buildings, smaller class sizes, and reforms to a widely loathed university admissions system.
asserted
students → protest → system
Education is a particularly fraught subject in France, where academic credentials overwhelmingly determine job prospects.
asserted
credentials → determine → prospects
But their concerns are also broader; as Greta Thunberg put it recently, “our future is being stolen from us,” a feeling that many young people across the continent share.
asserted
people → put → continent
The student protests have since become the focus in a constellation of different issues, ranging from the cost of living to rising fuel prices and public service cuts.
asserted
protests → become → prices
Those on Saturday drew in numerous groups, including unions and supporters of the Gilets Jaunes.
asserted
Those → draw → Jaunes
“Gen-Z is really facing a polycrisis of different issues, from the climate crisis to the rise of the far right and the use of AI” Stuppia tells me.
asserted
Stuppia → face → me
“And you can see the same set of issues coming alive in Italy, in Belgium, in Portugal, and with the Cockroach protests in India.
asserted
set → see → India
Young people want change.”
asserted
people → want → change
…and 36 more, not listed.
The Aporia
