On June 27, 2023, Nahel M, a 17-year-old French boy, was fatally shot by police in the suburbs of France. According to BBC, he was shot at the wheel for driving away during a police traffic check. According to CNN, the prosecutor of the case, Pascal Prache, said that the officer claims he fired the gun in fear that Nahel would run someone over. The officer that shot him is now under formal investigation for voluntary homicide and is being contained in preliminary custody.
Over a million people took to the streets in France in late January to protest a proposed rise in retirement age. Macron is standing by the proposal. Photo courtesy of Jaroslaw Baranowski via Wikimedia Commons.
By Sophie Glasco ’26
Staff Writer
More than one million protesters flooded the streets of France in late January, protesting against proposed retirement reforms by President Emmanuel Macron. The proposal looks to increase France’s legal retirement age from 62 to 64 in order to maintain the public-funded retirement pensions, a strongly unpopular decision, as polls reflect two-thirds of French people opposing the reform. According to French authorities, 1.2 million people protested on Jan. 31, while labor unions claim the number was closer to 2.5 million. Regardless, over one million people took part in the protest, with eight key unions represented in the strike, affecting schools, public transport and oil refineries. According to the BBC, 11,000 police were deployed to cover demonstrations in over 200 French cities.
Assistant Professor of International Relations and Politics Christopher Mitchell provided some context for the protests: “[A] long history of state ownership in France means that public protest has generally been a very effective way for labor to make its demands felt, as if the government owns key firms, pressuring elected officials can be as important as pressuring the management of the firm.”
The New York Times explained the French retirement system as “a pay-as-you-go structure in which workers and employers are assessed mandatory payroll taxes that are used to fund retiree pensions.” With the proposed reforms, the system will still exist, but workers must work until age 64. The reforms would also accelerate a previous change in the minimum number of years one must work in order to pay into the retirement benefits.
Opponents of the legislation argue that Macron is attacking cherished retirement rights and refusing to look at other options, such as raising taxes on the wealthy. Critics also feel that the reforms target blue-collar workers, who begin careers sooner but have shorter life expectancies compared to white-collar workers, according to The New York Times.
However, President Macron is firm in backing his proposal, as the bill is heading to Parliament, where Macron’s party has a small majority and therefore a “legislative showdown” is expected. According to the BBC, “[w]ithout a majority in parliament, the government will have to rely on the right-wing Republicans for support as much as the ruling parties’ own [members of parliament].”
The problem lies with a declining birth rate for the last few decades in France and other Western European countries, and thus fewer working-age people to support a larger generation of retirees in the coming decades. Mitchell explained the implications of the decline, stating, “[t]his means that inevitably either taxes will need to be raised on younger workers to support the existing level of benefits or benefits will need to be cut, or of course some mix of the two that will be popular with nobody.” Beyond the issue of taxes, France also has a notably lower retirement age than other European countries, with Italy, Germany and Spain looking to raise their retirement age to 67, as well as the United Kingdom at 66. “Given that you can qualify for state pensions considerably earlier in France than most other advanced democracies, Macron has proposed raising the pension age as an alternative to either raising taxes or cutting benefits,” Mitchell explained.
The French government and the French citizens are each stubbornly defending their side, with neither showing signs of backing down. The protesters have history supporting them, though, as Mitchell explained that “France also has a long history of mass mobilization and protest more generally, as can be seen in the First and Second French Revolutions.”
Photo courtesy of Jean-Marc Ferré for UN via Flickr. Rokhaya Diallo talked about her experience as a journalist and anti-racist activist in France.
By Sarah Bell ’25
Staff Writer
“Where do you come from?” is a question that Rokhaya Diallo has received all her life, despite being born and raised in France. According to Diallo, this complicated question normalized in French culture ignites a battle of proving one’s French identity while preserving one’s Black identity.
On Tuesday, March 29, Smith College welcomed Diallo, a French-Senegalese journalist, filmmaker and author, to speak on a panel entitled “On the French Elections and Beyond.”
According to Mehammed Mack, associate professor of French studies at Smith College, “Rokhaya Diallo is the only prominent woman of color to have become a fixture of the nightly news talk shows and radio programs in France. … She brought intersectionality into general public discourse, and has drawn the ire of the right as well as a section of the left that adheres to rigid secularism.”
“One of France’s most prominent anti-racism activists,” according to The New York Times, Diallo is a notable public figure in television and media. Born in Paris, Diallo graduated from Pantheon-Sorbonne with a degree in International Law, according to BlackPast. Her background in journalism stems from 15 years of coverage of the past three French elections. Diallo is also a published author, with a newly released book with her colleague, Grace Ly, titled, “Kiffe ta Race.” She has also written “Afro!” a picture book about the appreciation of Black natural hair, according to Goodreads. A true triple-threat, she has her hand in filmmaking, too, directing “De Paris à Ferguson: Coupables D'être Noirs” (2016) translated to English as “Paris to Ferguson: Guilty of Being Black,” and “Où sont les Noirs” translated as “Where are the Black People,” according to TV5 Unis. She is currently a researcher in residence at Georgetown’s Gender Justice Initiative in Washington D.C.
“Prepare to face adversity and lose opportunities,” Diallo said during the panel, speaking on the downsides of speaking out within the journalism world. Diallo has been fired from previous jobs due to her outspoken nature, but has also gained many opportunities from it.
“Language is a real tool of intimidation,” she said to the crowd. She advised young female journalists to be confident in what they are speaking about. Diallo doesn’t spend time on people who don’t want to take the time to learn from her regarding racism in France, though she emphasized that she is explicit with people who do want to take the time to educate themselves.
Carolyn Shread, senior lecturer in French at Mount Holyoke and faculty exchange professor at Smith, an attendee of the panel, looks to Diallo as a trailblazer in disrupting that pattern of the male-dominated discourse. “Diallo’s voice helps correct the erasures and bring us to a more equitable space, in which we hear from more than the happy few. We need — as soon as possible — for other people to join her so that she is not left to carry the burden of speaking alone.”
Diallo presented a clip she edited called “Qu’est ce que le Manterrupting,” meaning the interruption of female journalists and politicians by male voices. Diallo spoke on “preserving the art of speaking.” She felt like she wasn’t taken seriously in workspaces — however, speaking in a more assertive manner has helped her debate and assimilate in these spaces.
She also spoke on the candidates of the French presidential election, specifically on Marine Le Pen, the current president of the National Rally, and Eric Zemmour, who has made openly racist, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim remarks, according to The Economist. It is unprecedented in recent years for France to have two far-right candidates so high in popularity.
One question for the panel was about the importance of inclusivity, particularly regarding the underrepresentation of African and Caribbean female and nonbinary voices from Francophone and Lusophone countries. Diallo stated that the preservation of these works by diverse writers and the recentering of today’s notable Francophone African and Caribbean voices, such as Françoise Verges, Awa Thiam, and Paulette Nardal can bring attention to this.
Diallo and Mack recommended several Francophone contemporaries, activists and historical figures, including Louis Delgrès, Toumi Djaïdja and Albert Memmi.
On March 30, the French Senate voted in favor of banning minors from wearing hijab in public spaces. The ban proposal is part of French President Emmanuel Macron’s vision of a “separatism bill,” which, according to Amnesty International, raises “serious concerns that the law will be applied in a discriminatory way.” Since its arrival, the proposal has evoked controversy within French borders and beyond — echoing France’s previous Islamophobic legislation and colonial past.
