France, Europe and the West

 This article first appeared in New English Review.

It was not only Paris; Demonstrations in other French cities, ostensibly to protest the high cost of living, high fuel costs, and poor school conditions spiraled out of control and turned into violent and destructive riots. Several cities witnessed their town halls under attack, most notably Limoges, where rioters overwhelmed police, who literally had to flee for their lives. Once inside, the rioters set the building ablaze, destroying much of the 19^th century landmark structure including its iconic steeple. Similar scenes played out in Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Lille, Rennes, and other large metropolitan areas. Over 1,000 French police officers have been injured.

In Paris, while a female Spanish reporter was broadcasting from the scene during the night of the 17^th, she had to suspend her broadcast when several young men, apparently of Arab and African background, hogged the camera and waved their middle fingers and made throat-slashing gestures (below).

If that wasn’t enough, riots also broke out in Italian cities, most notably Milan in front of the famed Duomo cathedral. There was nothing spontaneous or organic about any of this. This was all organized, the latest example of the red-green alliance, the marriage of convenience between Islamist extremists, migrant thugs, Antifa, Black Bloc, anarchists, the Palestinian flag wavers, Marxists, and various and sundry left-wing radicals. It had nothing to do with the high cost of living or poor school conditions. It was about destroying Western civilization from within.  Make no mistake: This is largely the result of Europe’s total mishandling of immigration and asylum policies, policies which, when handled correctly and wisely, can greatly benefit a country. Many of the rioters in France are the children of migrants, second and third generation French citizens, yet unassimilated and disaffected from French society, and mostly Muslim, the perfect deadly cocktail.

Last night, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke to the nation on television. I watched a replay of his speech an hour or so later. To me, it was typically weak and pusillanimous. After promising that the rioters would “pay” for their transgressions, he assured (lawful) protesters that the government was listening to their concerns about the high costs of living and fuel and the conditions of schools. He took an indirect swipe at Trump and Netanyahu by referring to rising fuel costs in France due to a war that France had nothing to do with. And, of course, he appealed for calm in the runup to the upcoming elections scheduled for April 2027, which must now seem like an eternity in France.

What he did not do was declare a state of emergency. Not being familiar with French law, I don’t know what it requires for the French military to get involved (as was recently done in Spain with the Ceuta situation), but it is painfully clear that the police cannot handle this alone. It is now just a matter of time before they start getting killed. It is also a matter of time before they have to kill in self-defense.

The mess in Europe, which has been escalating since 2015, when former German chancellor Angela Merkel opened the floodgates to Syrian refugees, has now reached a new level of violence, and it is intolerable. France now has an opportunity to lead the way for the rest of Europe. It must seize that opportunity, or radicals in the rest of Western Europe will taste the blood and rise up.  This uprising must be put down, and the perpetrators and those financing them from behind the scenes must be removed from society and removed from Europe. Personally, I don’t care if France has to send in the French Foreign Legion. I don’t care if France has to bring back the guillotine, and I don’t care if they have to reopen Devil’s Island. France needs to act now, and the rest of the EU needs to support France and act in concert with her.  The more the cancer spreads, the more drastic the surgery will have to be.