Every generation or so the course of French democracy is determined on the streets. Be in no doubt that just happened again at the weekend. Or that, though it was provoked by the hard-Left, it is the hard-Right that will benefit.
Those looking in from afar might not have grasped the scale or ferocity of what happened. The riots – in places bordering on urban warfare – which erupted across the country from late Saturday afternoon onwards were the worst for a very long time.
Protests by high-school students complaining about class sizes, a teacher shortage and crumbling schools have been going
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