Watching the mass protests unfold across France, one wonders who is not trying to exploit the social unrest there.

The cliche that France since 1789 and later 1968 is a country used to demonstrations and revolutions does not vindicate the student protesters, who were joined by union members and public sector workers to protest the country’s worsening educational provision and cost-of-living crisis.

But the scenes of riots and looting and the masked men clashing with police could be telling a different story. And protesters could lose their right to demonstrate, guaranteed by the constitution, as the nation imposes curfews and other emergency measures.

The big question being posed is whether political parties and criminal groups have been exploiting the civil unrest to further their criminal and political agendas.

The month-long violent protests demonstrate that France is rioting against France. As recent history has shown, the country — all of France — continues to be divided over the need for economic and social reforms.

France needs change. But how? The public debt and political paralysis continue to rot the country from within, exposing it to political instability and chaos. And those parties that pose as potential firefighters if their leaders were to win next year’s presidential election are themselves, in various instances, playing the arsonists without regard to human life, property or political insight as to what could fix the French system.

President Emmanuel Macron is in the final months of his presidency. His center-right movement has tried........

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