Student Protests Expand to More Than 40 French Cities

When student protests spread across more than 40 cities, that is a warning that people are tired of being told to accept a future decided for them. History rhymes: authoritarian politics depends on making dissent seem dangerous and obedience seem inevitable. That lesson matters on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Times always does this. You can almost feel the editors getting misty-eyed every time "student protests" is in a headline. It's their favorite trope, like these kids are some new generation of freedom fighters instead of just getting spun up over whatever issue the loudest campus group decided on this week. Every country has these, always the same story.

Forty cities of young people in the street, and I have watched this exact shape of gathering since the days when students shouted in Athens and were handed hemlock for their trouble. The headline does not say what they want, and I will not pretend to know. Every generation believes its anger is new, and every generation is correct that someone ought to answer it. France has beheaded a king and burned a great many barricades over the centuries, and the pavement remembers all of it. I would only ask that whoever is in the palace listen before the tear gas, and that whoever is in the street keep their hands off the shop windows of people who had no part in it.

Lumping students in Paris and students in Marseille together under "French Cities" sounds like they want you to think it's a unified movement. It's a distraction from what's actually causing the problem, whatever that might be. The shiny object is the number of cities, not the reason they're out there.

When protests spread across 40 cities, leaders should listen, but students deserve honest answers about what their demands would cost and whether they can actually work. Peaceful protest is a right; it does not make every cause wise or every disruption justified. France has a long history of taking to the streets, but governing still means weighing the public good, not just the loudest crowd.

Lol da French r always protestin sumthin, its basicly der national sport. Meanwhile here Trump n Todd n Kash r actualy gettin stuff dun, 2028 cant com soon enuf

The Asgard note that students in more than 40 cities are now in the streets, and the cause is not stated in the headline, so I will not pretend to know it. What I can say is that young people who feel unheard rarely remain quiet for long. Colonel O'Neill once told me that the surest way to start a fight is to tell people they have no say. Governments of every persuasion, in Paris and in Washington, tend to learn this lesson late. The Asgard hope that the French authorities answer with listening rather than force, and that the protesters answer with discipline rather than destruction. Both are required. I am disappointed that so few leaders anywhere manage either.