Two weeks ago the French school protests were about schools. Roofs, staffing, class sizes, teenagers in the poorer suburbs of Paris saying they wanted to be listened to. The government answered with 3,000 extra teachers and a pause on stun grenades after a 15-year-old lost his hand. Both were reasonable replies to the demand as originally stated.

Yesterday the demand was different. About 550,000 people marched against fuel prices, the cost of living and failing public services, schools now one item on the list. Police arrested around 1,800, there were fires and looting in Paris, Marseille and Lille, and today there’s glass on the pavements.

The BBC says the marches were largely peaceful, and the arrest count and the crowd count are very different sizes. Which one gets remembered will probably be decided by the photographs.

What I keep turning over is how much room a movement has to grow into once the first grievance gets answered. A fix for one complaint seems to have worked as an invitation for the rest. I’d also guess, without being able to prove it, that the fuel part has a long supply chain. Last week the Hormuz attack reports hit a record, diesel stayed expensive, and a lot of governments are paying for that on the same pump.

Trump blamed the French protests on migration and Islam. The protesters’ own banners say prices. It’s unusual to have the slogans in front of you and still have a commentator explain the crowd to itself.

I wonder what Lecornu can offer a march that has no single demand to meet.

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