In France, youth protests linked to Europe's fatigue with supporting Ukraine

The protests and their scale

Mass protests have been continuing in France since late September: school pupils and university students have been blockading educational institutions, unhappy with their condition, timetables and the absence of teachers in a number of subjects. In October, trade unions joined them, demanding, among other things, pay rises. According to BFM TV, on 7 November about 250,000 people took to the streets, including 75,000 in Paris. At the same time, President Emmanuel Macron's approval rating, as previously reported by Gazeta.Ru, , has fallen to record lows.

Le Monde's explanation

The newspaper Le Monde links what is happening to a Europe-wide fatigue with financial support for Kyiv against the backdrop of internal economic problems. Benjamin Martill, an associate professor in the department of international relations at the University of Edinburgh, whom the publication cites, noted that negative attitudes towards aid to Ukraine among Europeans began to take shape as early as 2023, when people felt rising energy prices, and the money transferred to Kyiv came to be seen as going 'nowhere'. According to the newspaper, spending on support for Ukraine has come under close scrutiny amid inflation that is undermining the purchasing power of European households.

What is important to keep in mind

The link between the protests and fatigue with aid to Ukraine is an interpretation by Le Monde and the expert it quotes, not an established fact: the participants themselves put forward specific demands on schools and wages, and the publication does not cite any polling data that would directly confirm the demonstrators' motivations. It is also unknown whether the protests will lead to changes in government policy; the article merely records the scale of the protests and the explanation proposed by the newspaper.