Protests in France | It's not a race war

A graffiti with the inscription "Chirac's 'Noise and Smell'"; Sarkozy’s “Kärcher”; Hollande's Toothless; Macron's 'Those who are nothing'” Photo: AFP/Joel Saget “France is burning,” or something similar to that has been the more neutral headlines of the past few days. Our neighboring country has experienced days of protests across the country based on student protests. As is usual in France, the protests were not only peaceful. Arsons and looting were widely reported in Germany.

Many of those reports also provide an explanation for the riots. “Left-wing extremists” and “migrants” have the goal of destroying the French state. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt speaks in the "Bild" of an "armed struggle against the free society and our lifestyle" in which leftists and "a migrant milieu" meet on the street. On Welt-TV, the Islamic scholar Susanne Schröter can explain: "The left was looking for a new revolutionary subject and found it in the Muslims." What the riots suggest can be found out in the "Bild": If there is red-green-red in Berlin, French conditions are threatening! There is a “warning” about this in a shrill tone.

If commentators and politicians really cared about “the democratic system” (Dobrindt), then they would address the reasons for the protests in France. A miserable education system in which many graduate from high school but are then extremely screened out. Plus opportunities for advancement that depend on skin color and zip code and an explosion in the cost of living - good reasons to take to the streets. Reasons that exist in one way or another in many European countries, including Germany.

However, acknowledging this would require too much from Dobrindt and Co. They would have to admit that capitalism's promise of prosperity no longer applies. They would have to admit how useful racism and inequality are to those who profit from this society, and they would have to explain why they do not want to change any of this.

They don't give these uncomfortable answers, instead they once again stage a culture war and stir up resentment. In France this could lead to a President Marine Le Pen. In Germany, Merz and Dobrindt have not benefited from agitating against migrants so far. The AfD has long since outpaced the Christian Democrats.

This article cost you nothing. Us: research, production and technology. We saved on office rent as well as on printing and distribution. And we gave up salary. Nevertheless, the calculation doesn't work without you. We need 300,000 euros by the end of the year. You pay what you can, in return we keep writing.

No paywall, no small print, just one goal: that nd stays.