Hi everyone.
Tons of people, most of them not from France, are currently pointing out the protests as being horribly too violent and saying the protestors are savages that should be get killed or at least jailed.
This is an understandable point of view from anyone not knowing the country recent history. After all, France has still a quite strong economy and is a free democracy, so violence can seem as people unsatisfied with election results getting violent just because they lost.
So here is the point of view of one of the French violent protestors so you can see why a huge number of people are getting more and more violent.
France is free
This has become completely false. Though it would be crazy to compare France to North Korea, we have seen our rights reduced in a number of ways with the terrorism threat excuses:
-Demonstrations are forbiden unless previously approved by government
-Public gathering are theorically forbidenn unless previously aproved by local authorities (though in practice 90% of local authorities don't apply this rule)
-Free speach has been completely anihilated. We were never the USA in terms of free speach but now anything said directly against government can be punished as "incitation of violence in a crisis context". Not to mention the prosecution of anything seemingly said against any minorities.
-National emergency has been active for... I don't know? 2 or 3 years I think? This means military in the streets, regular check of identity and belongings on a daily basis, and numerous public places forbidden to the public.
-French government has been caught having a shadow militia. People bearing weapons and police uniforms, without being registered anywhere, directly under French president authority and used as political police or to put pressure on elected representants. This is not a joke or an exageration, look for "Benala case" if you want to know more.
France is a democracy
Best lie you can get. Of course France isn't a democracy but a representative democracy, meaning people elect representants and those people have the power. But it got MUCH WORSE in last years:
-There is since 2016 a direct control of justice from French government. President appoints ministry of justice, who appoints the biggest judge in the country. Means that anything that is trouble for French government goes directly in front of this judge who has no choice but to obey the president. That's not an exageration as there is currently a heated trial case that has been transformed in a mocked trial due to presidential influence (just look for "Benala" for more)
-Since 2012, French government has used a dictatorial tool known as "atricle 13" more than 10 times. It means the French government can put any law in action without having to go in front of the chamber first. It's litteraly: the president does this and you can't say anything.
-Numerous of times government has taken decision officialy refused by the people. Referendum on the EU has been simply ignored, laws on economy deregulation refused at 85% by the population has been put through with article 13...
There would be much more to say of course. But I hope you get the general idea that the country has changed a LOT in a short time and NOT in a good way. Every year France is closer to an elective dictatorship and this is really frightening. That's why the protest is mainly about the possibility for the people to directly open a referendum, in order to be able to stop this crazy dictatorial path taken by the various governments.
And there is no way to do it peacefully. How would you force your government to take the people into account if not by force? By election? Impossible as they already rigged the election system after last ones were too close for them... Now we're nearly at a bi party system.
I hope you understand better what the population has gone through and why the hate and wrath are transforming into such a violent protest. This is the only way we have. Unless we bend the knee there is no way they'll stop.