‘French government has had difficulty listening to the people on the streets’, criticizes political scientist

Since last month, popular mobilizations have occupied the streets of France against measures taken by the Emmanuel Macron government, which include a budget cut of 54 billion euros with an impact on several areas, such as education.

Because of this, students joined this scenario of general dissatisfaction and started to promote protests due to structural problems in the French educational system. The mobilizations are gaining traction every day. This Tuesday (6), hundreds of thousands of high school and university students carried out the third day of mobilization in different regions of France since September 30th.

To the BdF Connectionyes Radio Brasil de Fatopolitical scientist Florence Poznanski highlights the heterogeneous nature of the demonstrations, which are not just restricted to students, but bring together parents, teachers, trade unionists and other fighting organizations. “The demand is simple and even sad to see, because these are important things to achieve the dignity of teaching. There are students who say that they don’t have chairs, they don’t have tables to sit at, to study, in addition to the weather conditions: sometimes, it’s too cold in the winter or too hot in the summer. There are also students who say that they never had French classes for a whole year, because the teacher was sick and was never replaced”, he assesses.

Poznanski reports cases of extreme repression and violence by the police. “There was the case of a worker, an employee at a French university, who was tear gassed when the police entered after a confrontation in which he simply asked to be allowed to go to work,” he says.

The political analyst highlights that France is experiencing a pre-election context and, therefore, some political instability and the sign of an advance by the extreme right. Although a leader in voting intentions for the 2027 elections, Marine Le Pen did not take a position in light of the latest events. “We can have a critical assessment, considering that she is totally disconnected from the demands of society, but we can also consider that her audience is not that public and that she does not see it as necessary to take a position on certain issues”, he ponders.

Poznanski criticizes the stance of French Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, who, when speaking in parliament, criticized the protesters’ “acts of vandalism”, minimized the demands and made no criticism of police repression. This all happens amid voting on next year’s budget. “The French government has been characterized by difficulty listening to the people on the streets”, he summarizes.

The students continue to be mobilized and have called, together with the union organizations, for new acts for Thursday (8).

To listen and watch

The newspaper BdF Connection airs in two editions, from Monday to Friday: the first at 12pm and the second at 5pm, on Radio Brasil de Fato98.9 FM in Greater São Paulo, with simultaneous transmission also on YouTube do Brasil de Fato.