PARIS — The April 6 protests had already been going on for 30 minutes when I found Remy Busine. A 32-year-old video journalist from French online media outlet Brut told me where the gig was, but he still wasn’t wearing a neon yellow press armband and was dressed in a light navy puffer jacket and blue jacket. Jeans), he blended in with the crowd—between 57,000 and 400,000, depending on whether you believed the police or union organizers. and instructed his colleagues to shoot in the back of the march.
Business is a of come into view recent French protestsThe demonstrations were originally about pension reforms proposed by President Emmanuel Macron in January. The main problem was that the minimum retirement age could be raised from his 62 to his 64. But when the government forced passage of a reform bill without a vote on March 16, more than 6,000 people turned up at the Place de la Concorde in Paris without a formal plan. That crowd, mostly under his 30s, was outraged by what was seen as the government’s anti-democratic actions.
Nearly every night for the next two weeks, the French gathered in the streets in what the media called “spontaneous” or “barbaric” protests. “I have seen many young people show up,” Buisin said.
Busine’s livestream from the teargas frontline of the demonstration lasted up to eight hours and was watched by 70,000 people Brut TikTok at stream height. Last month, the outlet’s TikTok he gained 1 million followers — now he has 4.2 million — mostly thanks to his stream. (Broadcast in business Facebook And his reach is international. Fans are constantly asking him to speak English, but Busine doesn’t know how to say more than that he’s broadcasting “Live in Paris.”
Walking in front of the day’s demonstrations, Busine used one of two phones (one for work and one for personal use) to take pictures of demonstrators’ autographs. I was. Brut Instagram AccountDuring the 30 minutes we were together, 6 fans or friends came to say hello. Among them was a volunteer medic who asked Busine when it would start broadcasting.
