Reaction to the riots in France has followed a familiar arc: shock and disbelief, followed by dismissal and even denial.
The wave of demonstrations began last month at a school in a Paris suburb, where teachers and students went on strike over staff shortages. What began as a local protest quickly morphed into a nationwide movement fueled by seemingly everything that ails France, turning particularly violent last weekend as rioters stormed city halls from Marseille to Limoges and Lille.
In the aftermath, social media was awash with testimonials from Parisians insisting that the unrest was much ado about nothing. Yes, the scenes from Limoges, where an inferno engulfed the historic town hall, culminating in the collapse of its ornate belltower to cheers from onlookers, were dramatic. But they were only a snapshot, we were told.
The reaction to the storming of the Bastille in 1789 was no doubt much the same, at least until the revolutionaries started chopping off heads.
While the guillotine may be unlikely to make a comeback any time soon, the long-term consequences of what’s unfolding across France shouldn’t be underestimated, either for the country itself or for Europe.
The immediate trigger of the protests was student discontent with the state of schools and broader frustration over the cost of living. But what’s really at stake is France’s economic future.