ABSTRACT
An historical turning point was reached when troops were deployed on the streets to deal with social and political unrest in France during 2019. President Emmanuel Macron called out soldiers against ‘yellow vest’ protesters who demonstrated against austerity measures and social inequality. The governor of the Paris military district told France Info that soldiers had been authorised to fire on the ‘yellow vests’. In late 2018, President Macron also deployed military forces to Reunion to attack ‘yellow vest’ protesters blockading the island, a French overseas department in the Indian Ocean. France became a prominent testing ground for the large-scale deployment of troops from 2015 onward. France’s modern history of military deployment to suppress civil unrest, particularly working-class uprisings, goes back further, to the nineteenth century. Constitutionally, French presidents today have considerable political and military power. In addition to the military, the French authorities can deploy significant para-military forces to deal with domestic unrest.
