King Charles canceled his much anticipated official visit to France that was scheduled for the end of Mach, because the French President, Emanuel Macron, told him don't come - we have mass protests here in France!
France is now approaching three months of mass protests against President Marcon's pension reform bill, which increased the retirement age from 62 to 64. Polls show that 65% of the French people oppose this increase in their retirement age.
And these protests are massive, similar to the Yellow Vests Protests that gripped France in violence back in 2019. Although last week's protests were not as large as prior weeks', still, some 13,000 police officers nationwide, including 5,000 in Paris, were deployed to face and control protestors
So... What's the impact of these protests that are at times violent and volatile?
Here are some examples from recent Wall Street Journal and New York Times reports:
Schools were shut down
Trains and other public transportation were limited
Many domestic and international flights were canceled
Some roads and university entrances were blocked...
Garbage went uncollected...
More than one hundred government buildings have been vandalized...
More than 800 security officers have been injured
And lawmakers from President Marcon's party, have received death threats To better understand the history of French protests and their revolutionary spirit, I spoke with Professor Robert Gildea of Worcester College at the University of Oxford... He has been studying modern French history for forty years with particular interests in both la France profonde and revolutionary
France, the scholarship that is illustrated in his books titled Education in Provincial France and Children of the Revolution, The French, 1799-1914.
To learn more about Prof. Gildea and his extensive research and publications, you can visit his academic homepage.
In addition, below are links to other podcast conversations about revolution:
S2E33: Iran's 1979 Revolution, Dr. Sohrabi.
S2E42: Revolutionary Spirit of Iranians, Dr. Ghamari-Tabrizi.
S2E16: Russian Revolutions, Dr. Steinberg.
I hope you enjoy these episodes.
Host of the History Behind News podcast
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