Comment by paganel
13 hours ago
> Political protests in France remain quite powerful,
Political repression against the gilets jaunes was quite powerful, too, thanks for reminding me. It was surreal to be stopped in the middle of no-where, Pays de la Loire, by a bunch of gendarmes who were holding submachine guns, and all that because it was still gilets jaunes season (early autumn of 2019, if I remember right).
Heavy handed policing is not political repression.
And yes, police, gendermerie and the army patrolling in France are armed. There have been enough terrorists attacks in recent memory that this is the norm. None of those weapons were ever used against protestors of any kind ("less lethal" ones have been, sometimes to lethal or crippling effect to innocent bystanders or protesters).