A crisis rarely goes to waste in French politics.
On Tuesday, far-left French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon seized on the protests and riots engulfing the country to indict the economics of capitalism, arguing that its failure to deliver adequate wages had left people unable to keep up with the cost of living.
It’s quite the curious diagnosis for a country whose economic model is defined largely by an expansive welfare state and redistribution, and not at all focused on creating wealth in the first place.
🇫🇷 French left-wing candidate Mélenchon blames the riots (SHOCKER) on capitalism! "As I speak to you about student revolts, there are student revolts everywhere in Europe, in Asia, and in the Americas. Why is that? Because there is a system called capitalism, which chose a strategy called neoliberalism. That strategy consists of destroying public services everywhere and dismantling the achievements of workers and wage earners. They have destroyed them everywhere, bringing everyone to the point of exasperation." Writer: Michael https://t.co/ejpzAzCDvf
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) October 21, 2026
"Life is made of a single tissue, a single tissue that navigates in time and that carries on it the bodies, the minds, the hearts, a single tissue that travels in space," Mélenchon said. "Because when I speak to you about high school and student revolts, there are some everywhere in Europe, there are some in Asia, there are some in the Americas."
"Life is a single tissue. Why? Why is it like that? Because there is a system called capitalism that has chosen a strategy, the neoliberalism, that is to say to destroy public services everywhere and the conquests of the workers and the lack of wages, which destroyed them everywhere until they brought everyone to the point of exasperation, or those who count the most in your life, you if you are a young person."
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In other words, to Mélenchon, this is a Marxist revolution. But upon closer examination, and not even a particularly difficult one, the problem looks less like a failure of capitalism than a consequence of the country’s progressive economic experiment. It has fostered a sense of entitlement: when prices rise too quickly, the government is expected to make up the difference, and when it fails to do so, social unrest follows.
Take the so-called wage problem in particular. France already mandates a binding minimum wage, automatic minimum-wage adjustments, overtime and rest rules, paid leave, and regulated dismissal, alongside collective agreements that further govern pay and working conditions. The French government is hardly a bystander in the labor market; its rules shape nearly every aspect of employment. So if wages are falling short, why does the blame fall squarely on the country’s struggling private sector, rather than on the government that sets so many of the terms under which they operate?
Nor is taking to the streets over economic grievances a new development in French politics. The country’s tradition of unrest stretches back to the French Revolution. Its latest outbreak is hardly, by itself, a vindication of Mélenchon’s worldview.
This time, the protests began over declining public education before expanding into broader complaints about the cost of living, grievances that opportunists soon seized on as an excuse to riot, loot, and clash with law enforcement. As of Wednesday, French officials reported more than 2,500 arrests for offenses ranging from property damage and participation in groups formed with the intent to commit violence to assaults on police.
Editor's Note: The Democrat Party has been infected by socialism, and it's spreading FAST. Democrats are claiming there's nothing to worry about, but we know the truth.
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