France is becoming less and less democratic, and more akin to an authoritarian regime, similar to what you would see in Singapore or Russia.

France was already on the top of the list for the countries banning content on Twitter[0], it recently passed a law allowing to use smartphone backdoors to spy on everyone (including lawyers).

A particularly infuriating evolution is the current push to require citizens to ask the permission to organize protests, and prosecute those who do not comply. For the record, this is textbook what Putin does to harass political opponents.

So currently, state-affiliated media will often talk about an "illegal protest", while everyone should know that protesting is free and doesn't require any permission. Actually, an authoritarian party coming to power today would have to change very little things to assert a full grip on the French society.

[0]:https://www.fastcompany.com/4032890/turkey-and-france-top-th...