ProtestsGovernment leaders
French student protests: 'Illiberal' Macron govt dismisses social movement as 'urban violence'
Jennie Shin is pleased to welcome Éric Fassin, Sociologist and Professor at Université Paris 8. “In a democracy, elections are very important, but it’s not the end of democracy. It’s the beginning,” explains Fassin. He interprets France’s student protest movement growing into a challenge to socioeconomic policy and what he describes as an “illiberal turn” in government. Connecting the treatment of working-class, racialized youth with wider restrictions on dissent, he argues that racism and democratic participation are central to understanding the unrest. His analysis also challenges the attrib