OPINION: France's far-left rioters will usher in a far-right government

(cont.) Also, when you write "nine “brutal” years of Macronism (so brutal that the state still spends 30 percent of GDP on pensions and other social benefits, little different from 2017)", you see the money that is spent, but not the "return on investment", and you would expect some very good "return on investment"; alas, the French economy is stagnating, faring worse than its close European neighbours; the unemployment rate keeps being high, and the school system is slowly falling apart. The money might be spent, but, visibly, it wasn't well-spent. Despite massive investment, life has gotten harder and harsher for the poorest in France. How is that not brutal?

You wrote "The refusal of Mélenchon and Panot to condemn even the worst of the violence last weekend suggests that the government may be right." Now that's untrue as far as Mélenchon is concerned. For sure, he was painfully late in his reaction, but he indeed declared the following on Sunday evening: « Aller mettre le feu à la mairie de Limoges, c’est un crime. C’est un symbole collectif, c’est la maison du peuple. Et la même chose pour la mairie de Marseille qu’on a laissé à l’abandon. Le maire s’est retrouvé tout seul avec des gens qui ont enfoncé la porte » (Setting the Limoges town hall is a crime. It [the town hall] is a collective symbol, the people's house. Same thing for the Marseille town hall which was left abandoned. The mayor found himself on his own to face people who smashed the door) (cont.)