Escalations in France: The guilt of power

On October 17th, around midnight and a few hours later - then the catastrophe. Instead of a collective upheaval, inspired by the obvious legitimacy of the students' demands, there were tumultuous scenes, unprecedented violence, burning public buildings and above all - above all - looting staged by groups of young people dressed all in black.

The pictures spoke for themselves: Paris is burning - as are Marseille, Lyon, Limoges and the rest of the country. An uprising is imminent, the republic is in danger.

Who is responsible for the chaos? “La France insoumise” (LFI), of course. From the President to the Prime Minister and the members of the government to the parties and the right-wing press - without exception, everyone pointed the finger at the main mastermind of the violence: the godfather of the ultra-left and left-wing extremists, the hated enemy of democracy Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

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Senate President Gérard Larcher - the third highest figure in the state hierarchy - even went so far as to openly consider the possibility of banning Mélenchon's party.

Who is responsible for the chaos? The facts clearly point to the end of Emmanuel Macron's regime. This has led the country to the brink of the abyss through a mixture of fear, stupidity and miscalculation.

Since the beginning of the student mobilization, Macron has deliberately relied on repression. The fact that young people peacefully protesting against their living and working conditions were attacked with tear gas and batons - with one losing an eye and half of his jaw in a well-aimed shot, while another had his hand blown off by a stun grenade - was intended to spread fear, deter further demonstrations and nip the protest in the bud.

The exact opposite happened. The students could no longer be stopped: their movement spread throughout the country, the mobilization included teachers, parents, “yellow vests”, workers, unions… and the uprising against the high cost of living joined with that of the youth.

For those in power, the demonstration on October 17th became an event that posed every possible danger. Since it was initiated via social networks - without central leadership, without security services and without organizational support - it seemed uncontrollable in its nature.

By announcing that he had given the security forces “no instructions to exercise restraint,” the Interior Minister made it clear that their actions would be “uninhibited” and that things would get down to business properly!

But instead the police forces remained strangely passive on the crucial day. In Marseille, Lyon and Paris, rioters and looters were able to rage to their hearts' content with total impunity before the security forces even showed up. The latter were even sometimes accused of having provoked the unrest themselves.

Be that as it may, the explanations that the Interior Minister made afterwards – essentially: “We underestimated the importance of the demonstrations” – hardly convinced anyone.

Was it a mess that revealed complete incompetence? Or was it a deliberate act to deliberately allow the chaos to arise - in order to present itself as a party of order in a second step and blame it on “La France insoumise”?

A little of both, my captain. But now the online daily Mediapart has revealed that the government has specifically instructed the secret services to lie in order to incriminate LFI. The Paris public prosecutor then promptly declared that she “absolutely cannot confirm” that the ultra-left was involved in the violent acts.

The government's maneuver is proving to be so mendacious and pathetic that even left-wing parties that certainly cannot be suspected of being sympathetic to "La France insoumise" - such as Raphaël Glucksmann's "Place publique" or Olivier Faure's Socialist Party - feel compelled to defend LFI, even if only half-heartedly.

Under these circumstances, the President of the Republic has no choice but to appear on television and ask his dear people to patiently wait for the presidential election scheduled in six months - in the hope that their concerns will finally be addressed. But this display of powerlessness raises questions.

If those in power have only responded to the demands with brute force, it is because they simply do not have the money to renovate schools, reform the education system or pay teachers adequately. The coffers are empty and the country is heavily in debt. Mismanagement? Undoubtedly. But more generally: the devastating consequences of capitalism.

This year, major French companies paid out 70 billion euros in dividends to their shareholders. 70 billion! This is the second highest payout in the world, behind only the United States, while students estimate the amount needed to solve their problem at (just) 10 billion.

The system is like a gigantic vacuum cleaner that sucks up the national wealth and transfers it to the coffers of the haves - while more and more families have to tighten their belts and schools, hospitals and all public services desperately cry out for help.

This blatant injustice is by no means abstract. When children from the suburbs see the affluence of cities - from which they themselves are excluded - with luxury shops, restaurants, museums and art galleries, the anger that grips them is all too understandable. They realize that their demands – even when presented peacefully – are not being heard at all. Behind the rioters and looters, who don't care about anything and who - with loud cheers - rob shops and attack passers-by, there is real popular anger: the irrepressible desire to overturn the table so that something can finally change.

Now these suburban residents are majority, shall we say, non-white. You don't hear this very often in France, but abroad right-wing extremist regimes do not hesitate to say it openly. US President Donald Trump, who openly supports Marine Le Pen's rise to power, accuses "immigration and Islam" of setting this "once great" country on fire.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bluntly attributes the October 17 violence to an “invasion of extremist Islam.” And while Russian President Vladimir Putin did not comment publicly, one of his spokesmen described the uprising as a "suicide of Western civilization through migration chaos."

As you can see, the impact of the crisis in France extends far beyond national borders. To be clear: An international coalition around the world is strongly committed to a victory for the extreme right - with the fight against immigration as a central issue. As global warming threatens to make half the planet uninhabitable, it is becoming imperative to erect barriers to prevent the onslaught of the poor - Muslims, Arabs and Mexicans - on the strongholds of the wealthy. Given the rise of the AfD in Germany, the consolidated position of Giorgia Meloni in Italy and a possible rise to power of the Rassemblement National in France, Europe - in the form it has developed since the war - is threatened with disintegration.

Unfortunately, no matter what the analysis and warnings are, it is very likely that what French voters will remember most about October 17th will be the images of destruction and looting shown on a loop on television and social networks. This will give rise to a desperate need for order - a need that only one party can satisfy, at least at the level of fantasy: the Rassemblement National.

Historically, the so-called republican parties have always established a “cordon sanitaire” to block right-wing extremist groups from gaining power. Today, such a protective wall is being built around the “La France insoumise” movement. Referring to their failure, the “Rassemblement national” joins the parties of the center and the right and demands that “rioters” and their supporters be dealt with with an iron hand – its own iron hand – so that the country can finally live in peace and security.