As protests swept across France on Saturday 17 October, Tiziri Digne used Instagram to offer a forceful defence of those demanding change, before saying the response to her message had grown beyond what she expected.
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Digne, the partner of PSG full-back Lucas Digne, addressed the demonstrations and violence reported around the country in a lengthy Instagram Story. Her comments were then widely shared on social media and in the media, prompting a follow-up post on Sunday.
“My story is taking on unexpected proportions, and especially proportions it should not have,” she wrote, adding that she would return to the subject the following day.
The 33-year-old Lille-born influencer, who has more than 400,000 followers and has Algerian roots, had argued that France’s history includes major social upheavals which are now remembered as defining moments.
She referred to the events of 14 July 1789, as well as May 1968, the July Revolution and the February Revolution of 1848. Her point was that demonstrations, strikes, barricades, clashes and destruction have all featured in movements which shaped the country’s political and social rights.
Digne said young people from Generation Z were not alone in joining the current movement, naming parents, lawyers, firefighters and healthcare workers among those with legitimate reasons to seek change.
“Stop acting shocked by a looted luxury shop or a burnt bus stop when there are far deeper problems affecting our society,” she wrote.
Her post called for greater anger over the lack of staffing and resources in schools and hospitals. She also raised concerns about abuse within educational and extracurricular settings, police violence, political candidates with criminal convictions or electronic tags still seeking high office, inequality and racism.
“Every era has its revolutions, its struggles and its demands,” Digne wrote. “What troubles people today may be what is celebrated tomorrow, because great advances in history often come from those who challenge the established order.”
Her latest message came after a trip to the Netherlands, where she had accompanied her eldest son, seven-year-old Isaho, to a PSG youth tournament in Nieuw-Vennep. The left-footed youngster, like his father, exited the competition in the quarter-finals with his team after a day marked by heavy rain.
Digne was travelling back by train with her other children, Inaya, five, and Isaïa, two, when she responded to the volume of reactions to her original post.
