Hard times for Macron in France

 

A nervous Macron arrives to load aboard the open-air military jeep in the Bastille Day Parade. (AFP is funded in whole or in part by the French government.)

 

The French Revolution officially began on May 5, 1789, when King Louis XVI called a meeting of the Estates General to raise more money after he had collected what he could in taxes. But the meeting quickly devolved into a debate over sharing political influence and the poor living conditions endured by the people of France, while the king lived an opulent lifestyle at the Versailles chateau outside Paris.

On July 14 of that year, a Paris mob – hungry from a poor harvest and angry at the king and government for their suffering – stormed the Bastille prison, which had become a symbol of the absolute power wielded by the monarch after he confined many of his opponents there. The mob freed a handful of prisoners and seized large stores of weapons in what was a first victory for the people over the “old regime” (l’Ancien Régime), the French monarchy dating from around the 16th century. 

Macron booed widely during the parade.