how the saucepan became a utensil of political protest

“We can’t be heard, so we have to make some noise!” Françoise came with her kitchen utensils, Monday April 25, in front of the Théâtre de Paris, in the 9th arrondissement of the capital. Despite the raindrops, around a hundred demonstrators responded to the call from the unions and the Attac association, with the aim of singing their anger to the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, who came to attend at the 34th Molières ceremony.

The adoption of the pension reform using article 49.3 does not pass. Since the president’s speech on April 17, it has been impossible for a minister or the head of state to move on the ground without hearing the sound of saucepans accompanied by protest slogans. The Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond Morettithe Minister of Health, Francois Brown, or even that of National Education, Pap Ndiaye, paid the price on Monday. Emmanuel Macron himself was welcomed by a new concert of pots, Tuesday afternoon in Vendôme (Loir-et-Cher).

The charivari, “a people’s court”

“Eggs and casseroles are for cooking at home”, tried to answer the head of state, during a trip to Hérault. However, the use of the saucepan as a political object is not recent. The first saucepan concerts aimed at political leaders appeared as early as the 19th century. To understand its origin, you even have to go back to medieval times, explains Emmanuel Fureix, professor of contemporary history at the University of Paris-Est Créteil. “The charivari was an old customary ritual, usually led by young men, intended to protest against ‘ill-matched’ marriages and to humiliate in particular old widowers remarried with young girls”details the historian, co-author of the book Street story. From antiquity to the present day (Tallandier, 2022).

“It is a kind of popular tribunal concerning sexual morality, aimed at regulating the marriage market”, summarizes the historian. Traces of the first charivaris date back to the 14th century in the French countryside. The ritual takes place at nightfall, under the windows of the target person. “It takes the form of a thunderous din of saucepans, cauldrons, rattles, whistles, which could be accompanied by shouts, insults and sometimes dead animals”explains Emmanuel Fureix.

“Universal suffrage set to music”

In the 19th century, the ritual became politicized and moved to cities “from the 1820s, and especially the 1830s”continues the historian. “It’s the symmetry of the serenade, instead of having a welcome concert, we have the sound of protest and anger.” In 1830, the Trois Glorieuses revolution, on July 27, 28 and 29, put an end to the reign of Charles X and allowed Louis-Philippe d’Orléans to ascend the throne. But the protest does not end there. “After this revolution, the ritual becomes more and more systematic. There was even a national campaign organized in 1832, with a hundred charivaris in six months targeting deputies, prefects, and even bishops, in an organized manner throughout the territory.explains Emmanuel Fureix.

“The ritual may seem crude, but it is quite sophisticated. It aims to control a deputy in his parliamentary work when he returns to his territory.”

Emmanuel Fureix, historian

at franceinfo

elected by a tiny part of the population with the suffrage censitaire, the parliamentarian is thus judged politically by the whole of his fellow-citizens. “He can be accused of treason, of proximity to power, of having voted draconian laws”, explains Emmanuel Fureix. In 1832, The Courrier du Midi recounts the reception reserved in Marseilles for the deputy of Bouches-du-Rhône, Adolphe Thiers. “M. Thiers’ stay was accompanied by numerous signs of popular antipathy. Whistled and booed wherever he presented himself (…) While a discordant hullabaloo was going on in the street, the honorable deputy received authority the consolations of a serenade given behind closed doors in the salons of the prefecture”says the newspaper, according to a transcription made by the Clionautes blog.

It is necessary to put oneself in the context of the year 1832. Universal suffrage is then a claim of the republican camp and the conservative power seeks to contain these democratic aspirations. As the freedom to associate, to meet or to demonstrate is not recognized, the people are looking for a way to express themselves. At first, the power struggled to fight against these concerts of saucepans, because the only reason for legal proceedings was in the nocturnal noise. In the press, the Conservatives were indignant at this uproar and denounced a “universal suffrage set to music”as shown in an article by Journal of debatesclose to the Conservatives, transcribed by the Clionautes blog. “It is incapacity and ignorance erected into a right; it is confusion and disorder erected into an institution”protests the journalist.

“A ritual of globalized protest”

With the return of universal suffrage in 1848, the practice of charivari became rare, without however disappearing. “With universal suffrage, then freedom of assembly and freedom of demonstration, it becomes less central in the field of action. But it reappears punctually”, explains Emmanuel Fureix. The concerts of pans reappear in particular at the end of the Algerian war, in particular at the call of the Organization of the secret army (OAS), relates at the time The world. Then, the “cacerolazos” (concerts of pans, in Spanish) are heard in the 1970s in Chile, to protest against the socialist government of Salvador Allende, in a context of economic crisis and food shortage. “It was an opposition strategy to mobilize non-political groups. It served as a strategy to prepare the ground for the coup”explains to Radio-Canada the professor of history José Del Pozo.

“These are occasional reappearances, residual phenomena. In my opinion, the real break took place in the 2000s”, specifies Emmanuel Fureix. Argentinians take out their pans in 2001 to protest against the social, economic and political crisis. Then in 2011, “pans” are organized on a planetary scale around the movement of the “indignant”. “There are then pots in several countries, in the United States, in Spain, in Portugal, in Latin America, in order to denounce financial capitalism, the corruption of the elitesexplains the historian. It becomes a global protest ritual, with images circulating around the world. The saucepan is a plastic symbol, in particular to protest against the high cost of living.

“There is always this idea of ​​a popular instrument to carry the voice of the people in the face of a power that has become deaf.”

Emmanuel Fureix

at franceinfo

During the 2017 presidential campaign, François Fillon, mired in business, also found himself confronted with it. He could no longer make a trip without hearing the protest of metallic noises, symbols of his own “pans”. After the victory of Emmanuel Macron, the leader of rebellious France, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, quickly calls his supporters to demonstrate through “pans” to oppose the government’s Labor Code orders. In recent years, in France, the left has become accustomed to using this mode of action.

The “pans” have evolved over the decades, but current events echo the work of the historian. “I see it as one symptom among many of a crisis in representation and traditional political practices. Parliamentary discussions and the classic demonstrations not succeeding, other rites must be inventedbelieves Emmanuel Fureix. And there is always this idea, as in the 19th century, of control, of civic vigilance vis-à-vis the representatives of the people. By prosecuting the ministers, the president and even the deputies, we resume this function of control and civic judgment on power.