fête de la musique

Monday June 21st marked the annual celebration of music in France known as the Fête de la Musique. But, says Mediapart co-founder François Bonnet in this op-ed article, the event was not celebrated in quite the same way by everyone. There was champagne and state honours for the rich and powerful at the Élysée on the one hand; and baton charges and tear gas for young people listening to music in the streets on the other. In what proved a bizarre juxtaposition, he argues, the French presidency managed to organise two entirely separate worlds, that only co-existed side by side thanks to social and police violence.