I’ve lived here since 2006 and I haven’t met a single person that participated in any of the riots, which are offshoots of sanctioned strikes and do not represent France as a whole. I’ve had some students that strike for the environment or maybe do walkouts.

The closest I came to one was a strike about police violence and I happened to be in a café and had to evacuate because of year gas. In that instance, it turned out the person they were striking for lied.

So, I can’t say why they want to destroy stuff.