Quote:
Originally Posted by ahi
Yes, I do. But the threat thereof remains stronger than in many other western democracies. Wouldn't you say?
The Hungarian Prime Minister and the American President (along with a myriad other European head of states) see street-protests as the people's last resort. The French President, methinks, rightly sees it as a first step in a direction best not traveled too far for his sake.
Or am I idealizing France beyond its citizenry's actual temperament?
- Ahi
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well, it is true that street protests are sort of the national sport here (along with going on strike
). i heard that there are 100 marches per year in paris alone. that's almost 1 every 3 days, only for the capital ! of course there are also marches in other cities. and those are not counting the ones which are refused authorisation (most marches must have authorisation from the prefecture. riots obviously don't bother with the bureaucracy...). and we have had some very long strikes (most famously the "general strike" in 1968, which was nearly a new revolution and changed the social and political face of the country, and also about 10 or so years ago we had one which lasted a full month). we've also had some very violent demonstrations recently, riots in suburbs etc. so it's true, it's something that must be taken into consideration of a regular basis here, not a "last resort", and can definitely lead to very grave repercussions for the head of the government (although, lately we've been allowing them to keep their head attached to their shoulders. call it gallic generosity.
), and if they are persistent enough, have led to withdrawal or revision of government policies which were not approved by the people, and also sometimes high officials "stepping down" from office. so they shouldn't be ignored. must be our latin blood getting overheated.