PARIS: Of all the things the French do their own way, what truly distinguishes their country from its counterparts in Europe or the United States has been the reality that its politics can be decided in the streets. The notion and expectation that demonstrations and strikes can overrule policy is unique here. And so is recent governments' fear of street protests along with the generalized idea that this kind of confrontation constitutes fairly normal procedure. Specific grievances, settled with less clamor elsewhere, sometimes coalesce with deep troughs of dissatisfaction in France, and a glorified old reflex - call it nostalgie de la rue - can quickly mass crowds and create stoppages and violence without French democratic tradition providing a powerful contradictory brake.
PARIS: Of all the things the French do their own way, what truly distinguishes their country from its counterparts in Europe or the United States has been the reality that its politics can be decided in the streets.
The notion and expectation that demonstrations and strikes can overrule policy is unique here.
And so is recent governments' fear of street protests along with the generalized idea that this kind of confrontation constitutes fairly normal procedure.
Specific grievances, settled with less clamor elsewhere, sometimes coalesce with deep troughs of dissatisfaction in France, and a glorified old reflex - call it nostalgie de la rue - can quickly mass crowds and create stoppages and violence without French democratic tradition providing a powerful contradictory brake.
Where will it all end?
A national transport strike is set for Thursday, and after that, wider demonstrations are scheduled by teachers and students resisting reforms in the vast national education bureaucracy. A far-left leader with a growing audience has said he would like to see a general strike.
In contrast to May 1968, French students are more clearly divided now between idealists (or nihilists) ready to head for the barricades and those who want to take exams and think that France's state-oriented capitalism must be overhauled.
He was elected president as a reformer and would lose all credibility at home if he wavered in his commitment to uproot France's conservatism, castes and comfort in living with a foot in the past.
What has clearly changed is that the media keep doing "he said/she said" reporting, giving a voice to the small minority of right wing students. Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
Those protesting don't protest the system, they mostly don't want it to change.
You hope.
Why this should be unusual in "democracy" is the real story. Federalist Republicanism for the win?
