France and the Euro Spring

The current wave of European protests and student demonstrations began in France. Starting with teachers strike over staffing shortages and working conditions, it was quickly joined by high school and university students. The movement expanded from education issues into broader anger over the cost of living, housing and fuel prices, serving as the catalyst for similar demonstrations in Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany and the UK.

Many have called these protests the Euro Spring for their striking similarities to the Arab Spring of 2010–12, which were also based on economic grievances, distrust against political elites, concerns over government accountability, the cost of living and rapid spread through social media. Some might say that Arab Spring largely challenged authoritarian political systems, while Europe's current protests are challenging the economic and political performance of established institutions. But the truth is that these same 'established institutions' have proven to have forsaken the welfare, sustainability and survival of their own people time and again. The 2009-18 European sovereign debt crisis is an example; high public debt, weak post-2008 economies and foreign capital cut-off forced multiple Eurozone countries to seek emergency rescue packages. Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Cyprus, all got huge bailout checks just to escape failed-state status.

According to former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, the Troika – EC, ECB and IMF – exploited European periphery states like Greece, Ireland and Portugal not to save them, but to bail out core European banks while locking the periphery into a cycle of permanent debt servitude. This means the central states – France, Germany and the UK – used the EU structures to strip the periphery states of their sovereign assets, infringed in their sovereignties, and pushed them into death-spiral austerities. Nevertheless, France, Germany and the UK have neither demonstrated fiscal or monetary discipline, nor taken any measures to address people's grievances against their leaderships. Reuters reported last month that young Europeans are concerned about living costs; face risk of poverty or social exclusion; and are coming out to protest against unaffordable housing, deteriorating education and insecure employment.

France, over the past decade, has experienced at least 16 significant waves of protests, nationwide strikes, demonstrations and civil unrest – fueled by issues including opposition to labour reforms and pension cuts, alongside anger over inequality, policing, living costs and education. Railway Strikes, Yellow Vests, Farmers' Protests are a few examples. France used to be a generous welfare state, but in the passing decades, cracks have appeared in its universal healthcare, public pensions, extensive unemployment benefits and low-cost education. One reason being the €3.46 trillion public debt, exceeding 115% of GDP and its budget deficits running around 5.4% of GDP.

The second reason concerns NATO's US-led wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Essentially being tilted towards more imperialistic grabs and less on focusing upon national capacities, kept draining billions of euros in foreign campaigns that had no legitimacy. The Ukraine War proved to be the last straw of lust on the back of the French people. In defiance of Russia, France participated in the EU's energy decoupling strategy, causing a sharp surge in energy and commodity prices that directly strained household budgets. Everyday consumer-prices have risen by roughly 59% since 2000. Growth has slowed down owing to depressed consumers and depleted business confidence.

But there is a third reason, hidden in plain sight. The wave of African military coups between 2020 and 2023, followed by a broader movement in these states toward economic and military sovereignty, has brought to light the craven reality how France had been practising neocolonial exploitation in 14 post- Françafrique states for the last 60 years. CFA (colonies francaises d'Afrique) is the currency still in use in these states, printed under the supervision of the French National Bank. And all these African states are bound to keep 50% of their foreign exchange reserves in French treasury, and 20% more of their foreign exchange is to be paid to France as financial liabilities, because France 'is taking care of them'. Now, after the coups these states are trying to systematically move away from the CFA.

Under this neocolonial regime, French multinationals had exclusive rights on natural resources extracted from the soil of former colonies, like crude oil, natural gas, gold, diamonds, uranium. For instance, in Mali, French firm Bouygues controlled the construction sector, Bolloré Africa Logistics controlled the transportation, Orange controlled the communication, Total controlled the oil, whereas the financial sector was controlled by BNP-Paribas.

Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal were all controlled by French military bases, long-term operations, puppet regimes and French-dominated institutions in the region. It took 40 French military interventions to remove anti-French leaderships, and keep the state under firm control.

After the coups, French nuclear and uranium company, Orano, was ousted from Niger, ending France's assess to free uranium that ran their nuclear plants; gold mines in Burkina Faso were taken back; and France's military had to evacuate the six states.

So, the young people of France have good reason to hit the streets. Their corrupt political elite has deprived them of the free welfare and low-cost living they used to receive. Now, there is more national debt, institutions are cracking and they see no light in the future.

But what they are not cognising is that the welfare they had been getting for decades was based on the theft their political class was perpetually committing on other people. The avarice and bloodsucking tendency had not shrunk with the democratic ideal nor with the scientific thinking – equality, liberty, progress were for internal consumption, while devouring upon the external world remained a norm. What the French youth need to understand is that the free welfares and high living standards were not the product of their hard-earned work, but were heavily derived from foreign interventions and stolen resources.

If the French youth want to secure a better standard of living, they will have to sweat for it, stand up for themselves, and force their political framework to stop pursuing imperialistic gains in other sovereign lands.