I’d use a past tense here. Recent (20y) riots have not stopped the recent governments from trying to kill the french supportive state.
Public services have been crapified for 20 years. The whole retirement age? The money put aside for the boomer retirement transition was used for corporate subsidies. The money saved by making the poorer work longer is less than tax breaks given to the top deciles. Each time a public service earns money it is given to friends (Vinci is a big one) in the private market. High value medical acts are moved to private hospitals who don’t offer the lower value ones. Parking spaces, highways, state lottery… All given away. Capped electricity contract is being shut down slowly as EDF is being forced to sell energy at loss to pseudo competitors that only sell it at market price to the same customers. Government employees (except for the top one of course) have had their pay stalled for 15(?) Years leading to a current crisis where only the worst want to work as teachers, police etc.
And the last riot is “only” a George Floyd moment, not the first, against a police which has become more violent for 20 years, 7/10 of which votes for a fascist party (literally founded by a former Waffen SS), that cover their tracks by issuing false reports and having an audit service which is internal only.
So… Hopefully the trend will reverse but the outlook for France is currently bleak.
For more data on police killings:
