Adam Gopnik on protests in France

Curfews are still in place in some areas of France. Student-led protests continued for weeks and were mostly peaceful, but took a turn and escalated over the weekend, leading to buildings and shops being looted or burned and more than 2,500 people arrested. More demonstrations are expected on Saturday.

To help understand what’s going on, I called Adam Gopnik new yorker Staff writer, writes about the magazine paris journal Columnist from 1995 to 2000, his work remains closely associated with his adopted country. We discuss what the protests say about the current state of French politics and what they mean for outgoing President Macron.

The following conversation has been edited and condensed.

How did we get here?

The central issue to grasp is that France is in a state of heightened anxiety because the most likely outcome of next spring’s presidential election will be a confrontation between the far right (Marine Le Pen’s Rally National party) and the far left (Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s Insubordination party). This makes everyone nervous.

The specific thing that happened is that you had High school students strike. Strikes in France, especially student strikes, are common and ongoing. When we lived in Paris, our son threatened to start a Performance His kindergarten class. France’s “student protests” have some resonances with America’s “family farms.” This is something you can never criticize.

Talk to me about the protest culture there.

This is worthy of respect, even reverence, especially when it comes from a student. France is a highly centralized country, so what often replaces legislative incrementalism is people taking to the streets to express their opinions and opposition. This is an important part of French tradition.

Now, over the weekend, this has been grafted onto this what appears to be a completely different group of people and concerns, and most horrifyingly, they burned down Limoges City Hall.

What is it about these protests that particularly interests you?

As you can imagine, I’ve been talking to friends in France over the past few days via phone and FaceTime. Still, people with very high panic thresholds are still devastated by what happened. A friend said they were sitting on a volcano on the edge of civil war and I was shocked to hear people say that. I’m surprised at how different it makes for people who are there because obviously I’m not here right now.

What happened fits a typical pattern of far-left and far-right politics in France and across Europe. What it’s most likely to do – and this is the scariest part of it – is put the far right in power. Marine Le Pen and the National Rally party are already very likely to win next year’s election. Those who benefit from the violence are necessarily those on the far right who promise to restore order. This model—far left action, far right power—is very scary.

What do you think this means for Macron and his legacy?

Sadly, France has gone through a series of failed presidencies, which the French call lazy king——”Fake King”. This is an old medieval term. I think that, overall, history will be kind to Macron. He played his best on a difficult card and shined on many international issues. But he will leave with a deeply restless and disaffected nation.

Are there other conclusions we should consider drawing from this?

The worst outcome would be the coming to power of an extreme, right-wing, conspiratorial, anti-immigration, anti-European, anti-NATO, anti-DA government. We already have something like this in the US, which is a depressing thought.

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