Wilco Versteeg was in Paris to witness the results of the French presidential elections. The lecturer and researcher at the Faculty of Arts has been following protests in Paris for years. This weekend, however, the mood was rather resigned.

‘I was surprised by the mild response to the election results’, Wilco Versteeg says on the phone from the Thalys. ‘When the results were published, people didn’t even look up from their dinners in the cafés. I heard one single person cheer. They were more likely to be an opponent of Le Pen than a supporter for Macron.’

Wilco Versteeg has been following politics in the streets of Paris. For the longest time, this could be seen in the fierce yellow jacket protests. Now that those appear to have subsided, Versteeg was curious to see how Paris responded to the presidential elections.

Radical left

The turnout rates were disastrous, and Emmanuel Macron has lost his impetus, Wilco Versteeg concludes after this election weekend. Additionally, protests by radical left-wing youths were very limited on Sunday evening. Versteeg: ‘There were a decent number of people out and about, roughly 400 young people protesting not only racism, but also calling attention to the environment and the LGBTQIA+ movement. However, the protests were scattered rather quickly, and the resulting discussion regarding the next destination died in a democratic process.’

Eventually, the protest wound up at the Place de la République, but Versteeg can see that this new generation of protesters is lacking experience. The young generation of 2016 very quickly gained a core of 30 to 40 people that decided where to go and with what arms. But now there are new people between the ages of 16 and 18 that still need to find their way.

Versteeg wonders how willing people will be to act in Paris in the coming years. He thinks that Paris’ role as a centre for resistance to vested power is over. ‘Maybe that will shift to Germany.’

New Reality

Versteeg sees how the French political middle has disappeared under Macron. ‘Who can still make their mark in the next five years? If the extremely left-wing Mélenchon does well in the parliamentary elections, then Macron will have to deal with that. Mélenchon wants to become prime minister. I don’t see that happening anytime soon, but Macron will have his hands full with a divided parliament. He will have to adapt his policies to the new reality.’