Clouds of tear fuel and shopfronts smashed – and Emmanuel Macron wouldn’t have loved the protesters’ message

It was a mix of demonstration and riot and it created a sensory overload. Paris right this moment reverberated to noise, smells, voices and evocative sights.

The pink and black flares that billowed by the center of town; the police charging at teams of individuals, pushing them again; the wispy clouds of tear fuel that rolled down boulevards; shopfronts smashed for no cause; the cacophonous booms of thunderclap fireworks thrown into wheelie bins simply earlier than they explode.

There was violence on each side – there are few angels on sight on days like this – however the French police have learnt a lesson.

At the top of March, they have been roundly condemned for his or her brutality in controlling an indication, the place they appeared to assault folks indiscriminately.

Shortly earlier than the primary tear fuel canister was fired right here, French policing was criticised on the United Nations for its “excessive use of force”. Part of that criticism did come from Russia, however there was additionally criticism from European pals like Sweden and Norway.

Here, confronted by rocks being thrown at them and properties being smashed, the police have been unapologetically strong.

Read extra: More than 60 injured in clashes during France protests

There is little that’s delicate about tear fuel, water cannon or being whacked by a baton, however it was no shock. They had promised to be “harsh” with anybody inflicting violence.

But when it got here to the remainder of the protesters, there appeared better restraint. The police had stated they wished to guard the integrity of the demonstration, in spite of everything.

And so amid the melees, there was a message. And it was not one which Emmanuel Macron would have loved.

The French president was the villain of this piece of theatre, derided on posters, banners and in mocking songs.

His pension modifications the focus of a lot of this fury, but additionally his determination to push the reforms by with out parliamentary approval.

“He is not a legitimate president anymore,” one younger protester advised me.

Another, a girl dressed as a Roman emperor to mock Macron’s obvious love of energy, stated merely that she was “furious” and that “it is time for him to go”.

He will not go, in fact. But nonetheless laborious he tries to distract consideration, after which the main target to different issues, France continues to obsess about his pension reforms.

And so it was right here. In fact, violence that broke out all through this demonstration was as a lot the results of the acquainted “black bloc” of organised agitators because it was to do with pension reform. But it appeared to synthesise what so many have been considering – that standard folks have been being taken with no consideration, or, worse, ignored.

Macron has all the time needed to combat the allegation that he’s aloof from the folks he leads – extra desirous about sweeping change and political grandstanding than within the day-to-day lifetime of his nation. He gained the final election, say his critics, just because folks disliked Marine Le Pen much more than they disliked him.

Once he was the upstart outsider who reinvented French politics. Now he’s seen by many because the institution incarnate.

“He is the president for just one person, and that’s himself,” one particular person advised me amid the hullabaloo of the Paris protest.

For Macron, a number of miles away within the Elysee Palace, that isn’t a popularity to welcome.