Emmanuel Macron’s decision to mobilize troops on Saturday 23, in a bid to hold back the Paris gilets jaunes demonstrations, was a move unseen in France since the great strikes of 1947–48. In fact, across recent years, we have seen a gradual criminalization of social movements and the rolling-back of civil liberties. And as a man without either limits or historical memory, president Macron has just taken things to a new level.

It’s worth acknowledging just how grave his move was. The announcement of the decision to reinforce the “Sentinel Mechanism” — deploying between seven thousand and ten thousand soldiers in Paris to hold back possible gilets jaunes protests — marks a historic rupture in the French republican order. Such a reading is only confirmed when we see the theater surrounding the decision, as the government sought to ram home what it was doing.

This was a measure taken by Macron personally — he emphasized — which was then announced to the cabinet. Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux explained “We cannot let a tiny violent minority wreck our country and damage France’s image abroad.” The decision came at the end of several days of public statements by both the head of state and his interior minister. They promised to cast lightning bolts against future protesters, in the wake of the serious clashes on the Champs-Élysées the previous Saturday.