“C’est la Révolution, on prend la Bastille!” the protesters shouted as they broke into Marseille’s city hall in France on Saturday. It’s the Revolution. We’re taking the Bastille. Carrying a Palestinian flag, they overturned furniture and knocked a bust of Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic, to the floor. Protesters elsewhere stormed buildings across the country.
By evening, the city hall of Limoges, in west-central France, was burning. Its roof was destroyed; its century-old bell tower collapsed. In Bordeaux, in the southwest, rioters ransacked the official residence of the prefect, the national government’s local representative. More than 2,000 people were arrested; more than 600 police officers were injured. Several hundred shops were damaged across the country, according to the interior minister. By Sunday afternoon, fresh clashes had broken out in Paris. Shopkeepers were left clearing broken glass and counting their losses.
What were they supposed to have done to deserve this?
Earlier this month, I wrote in The Free Press about brewing protests in France, which began as demonstrations by high school students asking for better teachers and school conditions. Even then, there was violence. But it takes a considerable effort now to look at these scenes and see a dispute over school funding or the cost of living.