(Op-ed) Agnès Poirier - The Guardian Saturday 21st March, 2009
On 29 January, 1.8 million French people demonstrated in the streets of France.
They were civil servants and workers from the private sector representing a wide spectrum of society. On Thursday, they were the same, only there were even more of them: 2.2 million. On both occasions, the weather was on the side of the protesters, a bright sunny day from beginning to end. But why did they march again? Because they felt that the government and Nicolas Sarkozy in particular hadn't heard their voice. When they speak loudly, the French are used to being listened to.
What were they demonstrating about? Everything, as goes the cliche? Not quite. The French weren't protesting at the recession, they know very well that it is already and will soon be affecting almost everybody, everywhere. They were instead focusing their anger at the way Nicolas Sarkozy is dealing with the recession, pressing ahead with ill-advised, rushed and often ultra-liberal reforms that go against the course of history (less regulation, more privatisation), while favouring the richest with a fiscal bonus that has so far showed no sign of helping the economy as a whole and has increased an already abyssal public deficit. As for his most un-presidential style, it crowns their discontent. Yesterday showed in substance another massive anti-Sarkozy protest, and the latest poll suggests that the feeling is shared by 75% of the French.
You only had to walk alongside the demonstrators to realise the anger, even fury, felt by many people in France. As the demonstration hurtled along Boulevard Beaumarchais, from République square to Nation by way of Bastille, protesters tagged bus stops with different variations on the same theme: "Sarkozy, t'es fini", "Grève éternelle, "Insurrection générale", "capitalisme, nous te vomissons." Also, new graffiti, painted white, can now be seen on most pavements in the streets of Paris. It has sprung here and there in the last few weeks. The image is arresting, it is that of an old bearded man's face above the words "ça arrive" (it's coming). The man in question is Karl Marx, of course. Call it balderdash and political posturing or take it seriously, it all points to a recent trend in French politics: radicalisation.
Radicalisation has become a political reality in France. And it's been brewing ever since the French found themselves with no other choice but having to vote for Jacques Chirac against Jean-Marie Le Pen in April 2002. Recession is only making radicalisation more visible. Today, company managers such as Sony's boss are kept hostages in their offices for hours or days. The Trotskyist leader Olivier Besancenot is the most popular French politician on the left, and violence between police and the youths breaks out on a weekly basis in the most segregated parts of France.
If Nicolas Sarkozy doesn't acknowledge his fellow citizens' indignation, he can expect a third and bigger wave of protest sometime very soon.
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