Protest: Young and Don’t Want to Be Assholes

United against the First Employment Contract, the 10,000 Nice protesters started the march at 2:30 p.m. to end it shortly before 5 p.m. Young people in the front line were able to express their fears. A recurring chant to sum up the demonstration: Villepin you’re done for, the youth is in the streets!

A procession that begins with Zebda’s “Motivated” and ends with Damien Saez’s “Young and Stupid.” Two songs symbolic of this anti-CPE demonstration that brought together 10,000 people. Certainly more according to the organizers and less according to the police. As usual, we know the refrain. What to take away from this procession? The youth. It jumps out at you. Symbolically placed at the front, they agitated chanting “Villepin you’re done for! The youth is in the streets” or also “Villepin resign.” A dynamic start to the march but going back upstream, like salmon, the water becomes calmer without waves. It is composed of gas workers, teachers, postal workers, unions, retirees…

But all united with the young people and against the government. And even outside the demonstration like Michel stuck in his vehicle: “I’m going to be late for my appointment but it doesn’t matter. I understand their demands. I’ll wait patiently in my car. I wait with my cigarettes, the music. It’s more pleasant than waiting to find a job.”

Michel belongs to the 65% of French people approving the mobilization against the CPE and in solidarity with the protesters. Julie is a 16-year-old high school student. She sings, has fun too, but becomes serious again to discuss the reasons for her anger: “I can’t vote yet and protesting is my only power. I’m at an age where you start to realize life’s truths. We followed classes stupidly in middle school. The adults, parents or teachers, had convinced us: if we got good grades we would find work more easily. That’s false. We need to be able to choose. Young people need to take action.” Julie is motivated, young and not stupid. Her fears for her adult life are represented by the CPE: “It’s starting a job and risking losing it overnight, not having life plans. In short, childhood dreams that collapse facing the harsh reality of life. I can’t accept it and I hope that by being here, things will change.”

Julie sums up the spirit driving the younger participants of the demonstration: be motivated, take action and act. A determined youth. For her “There’s only one solution: demonstration.” Between political awareness and economic naiveté, on this Tuesday, she has only one adversary: Dominique de Villepin. “I have the impression of being a few years back when I was protesting against Lionel Jospin. The last syllable is identical. The chants are similar. I was just as motivated as these young people but today, with hindsight, I think it wasn’t effective. The only solution seems to be voting or an unlimited general strike,” analyzes Yannick, once a protester and today just a passerby.

What will the CPE be in a few years? How will the government react to the strong mobilization everywhere in France (approximately 800,000 protesters)? Will Dominique de Villepin be sensitive to Julie’s fears? Will Julie become like Yannick, an indifferent passerby? Questions without answers with only speculation. One certainty: politicians may be old and crazy but French youth is not stupid.