There was a sense of foreboding in France at the start of this week. After the anarchy of last Thursday and the extraordinary violence in western France on Saturday, where radical environmentalists fought a pitched battle with police, what would the next seven days bring?
Much of the media speculated that the 10th day of action organised by unions in protest at the government’s pension reform bill would result in the sort of scenes witnessed across France five days earlier, with city halls torched, shops sacked and police stations attacked. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the left-wing La France Insoumise, was accused by the government on Monday of tacitly encouraging the disorder. Yesterday, he called for protestors to make their point peacefully.
Along with tens of thousands of others, I assembled in the Place de la République at lunchtime on a raw March day. Crowds of people were standing around talking, browsing the stands selling left-wing tracts or eating hot dogs from one of the many vendors.
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