Guardian Europe columnists Rokhaya Diallo and Alexander Hurst are taking questions from readers about the riots and protests in France. Join the discussion in the comments here.
Thomas asks: I wholly support LFI in the coming presidential elections, as the sole realistic opponent to the far right. I know centrist voters sometimes struggle with that notion, including Mr Hurst. Did the recent declarations of Gabriel Attal, Raphaël Glucksmann and the other centrist politicians regarding what basically amount to martial laws to try to squash the protests change their vision of LFI, or only reinforce it?
Rokhaya: Thanks for the question Thomas! I doubt these statements about law and order will change centrist voters’ perceptions of LFI. They may reinforce their existing hostility.
There are differences between the proposals. Attal supported a possible state of emergency, administrative searches and house arrests, alongside soldiers guarding public buildings, targeted social-media shutdowns and expanded surveillance. Glucksmann has endorsed partial curfews, subject to constitutional limits; I have not seen him advocate a state of emergency.
Alexander: Hi Thomas, thanks for the question. I do disagree with your qualification of me as “centrist”. I want to pass the Zucman tax on fortunes above €100m and stop a lot of the really inefficient handouts to businesses (France’s Cour des computes identified is €211bn overall) even as many of these businesses pay out dividends, and redirect some of that revenue to increased spending on health and education and green energy infrastructure.
I’d love to see a common corporate tax rate at an EU level to stop multinationals evading taxes by choosing low-tax jurisdictions, want strict regulation of AI and would love to require, at minimum, any datacentres to use 100% renewable energy and ban them from causing deforestation. I want to see trade sanctions placed on Israel over the genocide in Gaza, and blocking measures used to protect the ICC against Trump’s attempt to destroy it.
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