Protests in France enter third weekend and government mobilizes 70,000 police

This weekend, France faced another wave of protests across the country, and the government mobilized another 70,000 police officers to try to contain the disturbances. According to Fox News correspondent Alex Hogan, it is the third consecutive weekend of demonstrations, with scenes of fires and reports of the use of tear gas.

Live footage from Paris showed streets taken over by protesters. People wore gas masks and regular masks as a precaution in case the police threw gas. According to protesters, the revolt is motivated by the cost of living and dissatisfaction with President Emmanuel Macron's government. The Ministry of the Interior says that more than 100 protests were planned on French territory that day.

From school protest to national crisis

According to Hogan, the acts began with demonstrations at schools and have turned into a national and international crisis as tensions rise. The French Interior Minister warned of a very high risk of public disorder. There were also protests in Hamburg, Germany.

The episode comes just two weeks after previous protests left looting, small stores destroyed and buildings, especially historic ones, set on fire. According to presenter Aishah Hirsi, President Macron attributes the mobilization to groups trying to undermine the functioning of France and the rule of law.

Hogan, who said he was a foreign correspondent for five years, noted that protests in France occur every few years and are not uncommon. In her assessment, what changes now is the scale, duration and dissemination of the acts, including to other countries. The correspondent also highlighted the government's difficulty in containing dissatisfaction, which ranges from the cost of living and schools to general complaints against the authorities.

Immigration enters the debate

Fox Business coverage turned the discussion to immigration. According to the presenter, President Donald Trump said a few days ago that he had warned Macron a long time ago: if he did not face the problem of immigration, France could lose its own country. In her opinion, this is not a school problem, but an immigration one. The transcript does not allow confirming Trump's statement, which is attributed to him by the presenter.

Alex Hogan compared the debate to that in the United States, where immigration is a recurring topic before the midterm elections. She cited pressure on social services in Europe and questioned the economic impact on governments and citizens, beyond the point at which this burden becomes excessive. The cause of a fire that broke out during the broadcast had not been clarified.

The presenter recalled that France will have presidential elections at the beginning of next year and said that Marine Le Pen benefits from the weekly protests. For investors, the combination of social instability, pressure on public accounts and political uncertainty in the second largest economy in the euro zone deserves monitoring, although the transcript does not provide market data on the impact on French assets.

Automatically translated from Portuguese.