Do they? I haven’t seem a lot of meaningful changes in France due to protests in the last 10-20 years. Perhaps you have a list of them that a directly due to protests? It seems like the ruling class, leadership and in general regular people just ignore protests as ‘part of life’.
They do listen to some extent. Not always, obviously, but saying protests are basically useless is just wrong. The CPE was scrapped after protests in 2006, the écotaxe was abandoned after the Bonnets Rouges protests, the fuel tax increase was cancelled after the Yellow Vests, and the government backed down on several measures after the 2024 farmers’ protests. You can argue protests do not always succeed, but pretending they achieve nothing just ignores what actually happened.
Do they? I haven’t seem a lot of meaningful changes in France due to protests in the last 10-20 years. Perhaps you have a list of them that a directly due to protests? It seems like the ruling class, leadership and in general regular people just ignore protests as ‘part of life’.
They do listen to some extent. Not always, obviously, but saying protests are basically useless is just wrong. The CPE was scrapped after protests in 2006, the écotaxe was abandoned after the Bonnets Rouges protests, the fuel tax increase was cancelled after the Yellow Vests, and the government backed down on several measures after the 2024 farmers’ protests. You can argue protests do not always succeed, but pretending they achieve nothing just ignores what actually happened.
Unfortunately the government’s like to wait a few years and try again. The message doesn’t always stick
Macron cancelled a tax hike right before the pandemic, IIRC. I can’t think of anything else particularly substantial from the last 10-20