🇫🇷 "Total incompetence," France Unbowed leader and Presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon said of the government's handling of Saturday's mass protests, in an interview with LCI on Sunday evening. 🔹Mélenchon said the date had been known since early September, yet only 10,000 police were deployed nationwide, compared with 14,000 in Paris alone for the pope's visit. He blamed President Macron and Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, a former intelligence chief. 🔹Asked if France was in a “revolution,” Mélenchon called revolution "a process over time where one system is replaced by another," adding: "I believe in elections. I believe in dialogue. I believe in the vote." Others, he said, favor a path of more direct action. 🔹He said the violence on Saturday was burying the real issue: "People are hungry. People need to be able to put gas in their car at a price that lets them leave home." He pointed to 9 million people living in poverty and students lining up for €1 meals. 🔹Mélenchon, who marched with protestors in Paris on Saturday and supports the movement, said he has three demands for President Emmanuel Macron:
➤ A freeze on prices
➤ Scrapping Parcoursup, the university admissions platform, and €10 billion for students
➤ Immediate compensation for shopkeepers whose stores were looted