Nuit Debout Protests Take Hold in France
Crowds of protesters have occupied the Place de la Republique in Paris in demonstrations against the proposed new French labor code published on March 31. The anti-establishment demonstrators have remained in the square every night since the end of March, giving the movement its nickname Nuit Debout (Up All Night). Some protesters have even been sleeping on the ground, according to Le Monde. On the busiest day, the demonstrators were estimated to number at 100,000 according to the labor unions supporting the movement. The Nuit Debout movement is composed largely of youth who are afraid of being abandoned by the French government, especially since the new labor code heavily favors employers. The movement has spread rapidly to other cities in France as well as Belgium.
Originally aimed at opposing the new French labor code, Nuit Debout has evolved into a real political movement which, according to the Huffington Post, does not affiliate with any parties and does not have a leader. Instead it is organized as an agora, where individuals sign up to give various speeches or raise issues which they think are relevant to the labor situation. One activist interviewed by the Huffington Post said that “the movement attempts to transcend the demonstrations and emerge into a concrete anti-system movement.”
Nuit Debout aspires to combat the “anti-democratic elites who stand outside of any national or political order,” according to Le Monde. An opinion poll conducted by Ifop-Fiducial on April 12 for the newspaper Metronews states that 76% of France’s youth identify with the claims made by the Nuit Debout movement, and 61% support its actions.
The distinctive aspect of the movement is its total rejection of politicians and the political class, a reflection of the fact that 84% of France’s youth today disapproves of the current political class. Le Petit Journal reported that the ideal politician for the organizers of the movement would be someone “new to politics, who had experiences working in a small or medium enterprise.”
Reactions among the establishment political class remain mixed. The far-right National Front (FN) called for a total dissolution of the movement, with a spokesperson for the party stating in L’Express that it was a “center for the destruction of Paris.”
On the other end of the spectrum, the French Communist Party (PCF) applauded the demonstrators, and leftist presidential hopeful Jean Luc Mélenchon drew parallels with the Indignados in Spain who occupied the Puerta del Sol in Madrid in response to the austerity measures imposed by the IMF and the EU in 2011.
France’s government has approached Nuit Debout with caution, sending police forces to protect protesters and to clean the protest site in the morning, according to Le Monde. The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo (PS) stated in Marianne that “while it is legitimate to dream of another world, it is not to degrade the one we live in.” President Francois Hollande has been reluctant to address the movement entirely.
This movement crystallizes a wave of protests against the current system and calls for major changes in French society. Many have repeated the words of the first socialist French President Francois Mitterrand, who led the country between 1981 and 1995: “The youths are not always right, but it is always wrong for a society to ignore them.”
Note: An abbreviated version of this article appears in print.