Oct 19, 2026 13:48 pm IST

Opinion | Louis Vuitton Loot, Torched Cars: France Protests Have An Unlikely Beneficiary

It's an unbelievable moment. Crowds looting the most exclusive stores in Paris, including the famed Luis Vuitton. But what's behind this meltdown?

Tara Kartha Tara Kartha Columnist

Tara Kartha Columnist

It's an unbelievable moment. Crowds looting the most exclusive stores in Paris, including the famed Luis Vuitton, and stores most of us wouldn't even think of entering, given their almost unreachable costs. Yet, video footage shows precisely that. Apparently, all this is part of 'student' protests, though the masked hoodlums appear to be anything but. It is almost an action replay of what Delhi witnessed just recently, though thankfully here, the scale of the protests was kept firmly in check by an alert administration. Student protests seem to have become the norm rather than the exception, with 31 in the Eurozone alone, and India, Nepal, and Bangladesh being notable cases outside. In at least two of those cases, the protests led to government change. Some curious aspects are worth noting, since this is by no means the end of the game. For a game it is, and a dangerous one.

Why The French Are On The Streets

So far, this is the story in France. The protests started in early September, oddly enough, over almost the same type of issues as in India. Causes included teacher shortages, overcrowded classrooms, dilapidated school buildings, overloaded schedules, and complaints about the Parcoursup university admission web system, which was likened to a 'black box' non-transparent system, with long waiting-list cycles leading students to spend months in limbo over the summer, creating high psychological stress and mistrust in the education system. Bureaucracies are not that different across the world.

Anyway, that particular grouse spiralled quickly to include other issues, so that by mid-October, the students had converged with labour unions, trade unions, and groups echoing the "Yellow Vest" movement - which had been a grassroots movement in 2018 and has now been revived - all of which meant that the demonstrations would turn into a wider agitation against the government on rising living costs, fuel prices, and broader economic hardship.

This is certainly the reality. Public debt has spiralled to 119% of GDP, what with Macron's 'war........

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