The French Intifada

Protesters clash with police during an authorized march called by a union in Marseille on Saturday. Between 410,000 and 800,000 people marched across France (REUTERS/Manon Cruz) According to the translator's bible, the Arabic word "intifada" corresponds in Spanish to several terms, two of which are "agitation" and "uprising." It is associated with the Middle East, but it also applies to other realities, in the heat of the cry "globalize the intifada," which apparently in France was heard alongside the scarf known as the Kufiya, so much so that many flags were displayed at the demonstrations, with the exception of the French one. Around the world, the questions are many: what happened to France? Why France? If it happened there, it could happen in any country — the United States too? To begin with, it was unacceptable violence everywhere, where not only its level is surprising but also the lack of response, the inefficiency demonstrated by the State and its rulers, since it is not the legitimate protest of people who want to improve their society, but the molecular revolution of those who despise the country and its traditions, because above its colonialist excesses stands an immense civilizing work, which has contributed to the world some of the finest trajectories of humanism. Moreover, without France the very idea of the West cannot be explained, being one of its vertices, so it hurts to see how it accepts attempts to eradicate what made it great and admired. France is an expression of history and culture, a destination for emigration and tourism, and undoubtedly its citizens have made bad decisions, since it is upsetting to see how successive governments have led it to a growing irrelevance, where it is difficult to find in recent centuries another moment when Europe has less weight than now on the balance of power. Why does France not awaken from a European tragedy, where, as in the United Kingdom and Spain, the black legend created by its enemies is accepted — without yet any reaction? France is the country of Napoleon and De Gaulle, where tears were once shed over military defeats such as that of 1940, today there are tears over the institutions and the French who have renounced defending France, improperly multiplying its defects and errors, in part an intellectual inheritance and influence of what May 1968 and its "It is Forbidden to Forbid" represented. It is not a matter of rights, since it is one of the countries with the most social benefits in the world, but that cannot be the motive for so much violence — perhaps its quality, but more surely as an explanation is that it is the model of immigration, which today shows its failure to ensure the integration of those who enter, legally or illegally, as well as to reflect that perhaps the much-criticized U.S. model offers more possibilities of inclusion, or why Canada registers so many cases of very well-integrated immigrants from Muslim countries — they, their children and grandchildren, just as in France itself there are so many immigrant families from Vietnam or China, fully proud of their success and of being French. Something happened that France and its recent rulers have not wanted to see, since those who protest are not the original immigrants, but their children and grandchildren, many of whom do not feel French, but citizens of the countries their relatives came from, and which perhaps they have never lived in, except as tourists, since the underlying issue is that their relatives entered France fleeing from there. Above all, it is the culmination of decades in which there were no consequences for accusing as "racist" the France that generously welcomed those who entered from there. Today, we are witnesses to authorities that act with passivity and indifference before a situation that, instead of improving, is getting worse. On Saturday France lived through another day of violent protests in several cities of the country (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias) Of course, in France as in Europe there are demonstrations and real demands that need solutions, such as the cost of housing or an education that does not offer equal opportunities to those of a different skin color than those who come from more well-off homes, although this is being fought against permanently. It is a reality where France has no solution for the unprecedented situation of new generations who live worse than their parents, sometimes adults who cannot leave the paternal or maternal home. However, more than these demands, on social networks the opinions predominate that compare Macron's and other leaders' concern with Gaza rather than with the French living in poverty, as well as those who feel offended that this agitation is blamed on Trump and his words rather than on the agitators, especially since the American press reported that an ecosystem of 54 radical left organizations was found participating in the financing and support of the mobilizations — which, let us not forget, included the looting of very expensive boutiques and the arrest of adults. Moreover, no attention was paid to a very detailed report that intelligence officials delivered some time ago to parliament, as well as the fact that in Europe it is possible to compare two responses, that of Macron with that of Meloni in Italy, who got ahead of the problem, that is, deterring before more violence arises. There may be an issue of misallocated resources, as well as a public debt that grows day by day and where, without reforms that nobody wants to undertake, it is (almost) impossible to finance the Welfare State. However, above anything specific, the true causes need to be found in something deeper, namely several major failures rehearsed over decades, which at some point were a consensus. These are, first, the failure of a specific immigration system known as multiculturalism; second, an ideological position that is also in crisis around the world and with which I have identified at various stages of my life, namely the political center; third, the center has often joined with liberalism; fourth, a variant of liberal origin has also failed, known in foreign policy as do-goodism. Finally, fifth, there is a crisis of the republican model, since in the street, in the institutions of culture, and in ideology, there exists a de facto alliance between Islamism and the radical extreme left, which has always existed but has rarely found allies, which means that today, because of his support for violence, the leader of France Unbowed is a greater danger to democracy than Mrs. Le Pen, whether she competes or a substitute does. Although with lesser intensity, what France experienced, violence has also been known in other European countries such as Belgium, Italy, Albania (where they already wanted the prime minister's resignation), Spain (Barcelona), with Poland announced soon, so France must be seen more as a warning than as a domino. It is also one for Germany or the United Kingdom, both regarding the crisis of the Welfare State and regarding a style of democracy where the so-called "cordon sanitaire" has not been healthy — it has not only failed to stop that growth, but in democratic theory, all those who respect the rules of the game must have the possibility of reaching government. However, what has happened in France is very deep, so, although the impact of a growing public debt is real, in no case can one fall into the reductionism of limiting the explanation to an economic factor, since much more leads those protesters to pour their rage into the street, as it is not the first time there have been violent demonstrations, given that there was also violence, although at a much lower level, in something very different such as the "yellow vests" — do you remember them? In something more similar, we have what happened in July 2023 after the death of Nahel, a 17-year-old youth of Algerian and Moroccan parents, where France lived days of protests, also with a predominance of violence against the State and society. Before, there had been a state of emergency that lasted three months in 2005. And just as African blood has turned France into a soccer power, it has also been a problem of division when they face the countries of origin of the parents, and sometimes the players themselves have participated, one against another. Not only in France, but also when Belgium versus Morocco transferred the sporting rivalry of the Qatar 2022 World Cup to the streets of Brussels. More than a thousand people were detained after the violent protests on Saturday (REUTERS/Abdul Saboor) What is distinctive is that in all these years there has been no proposal, nor solution, to that unresolved conflict, neither from the prime minister's office nor from the presidency, especially since they now have a bigger problem when, to the above, both political and criminal violence have been added. This inactivity influences the European level, since, just as Germany directs economic policy, it is France that holds the key to the ideological control of the European Union, at least since the era of Mitterrand, because its policies are reproduced in most of the countries that make it up. If anyone has become the symbol child of governmental impotence, it is Macron, who tried, without achieving it, exactly the opposite: to be a kind of do-goodist counterpoint to Putin. Along the way he introduced instability into the leadership of the country, when without reason he called elections that he lost, becoming since then a minority government, which today, with presidential elections in six months, is the very expression of the so-called lame duck, one characterized by words rather than deeds. Nor has he been able to project power beyond his borders, so much so that without reaction he has lost military presence, being forced to withdraw humiliatingly from countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Ivory Coast, and Senegal, ending more than six decades of military presence in those places in Africa, to be replaced in several of them by the Wagner Group, today in the name of the Russian Kremlin — a continent that suffers from Western neglect, despite the high presence of jihadism. In France, only two political models have ceased to face each other, which have replaced the old characterization of left versus right with something different: the center joining with the globalized lefts to defeat the new rights of identity nationalism, which thus allowed him to reach the presidency by defeating Marine Le Pen. In the years of Macron in power, a third model has consolidated, the one that embraces Islam in the religious and the colonial past in the ethnic, above all from the Maghreb, North Africa. It is not only the color of the skin of other migrations, but the identity element adds to a feeling of discrimination, even if third generation, and which moreover enters into conflict in the neighborhoods where they live, not feeling either respected or welcomed, whose numbers living there grow while the older French lose presence and prominence, in such a way that former voters of the communist party today vote for the National Rally (ex National Front). To this political model has been added a union between Islamism and progressive wokism, where the attitude of the latter expresses frank adherence, not just tolerance, as demonstrated by the crowds that have manifested in favor of Hamas and of "globalizing the intifada," now in Paris. There is something that precedes Macron, since several presidents have wanted to promote a "French" Islam from the government, supposedly coinciding with republican values. This demonstrates not understanding the challenge France has ahead, since it is not understood that the problem is not the religion, but an ideology — it is not Islam but Islamism, that of permanent jihad, something that does not stop even with the disappearance of Israel, but continues onward with Spain, since every document of Al Qaeda, like other Islamist organizations, does not refer to Spain as such, but as Al-Andalus, alluding to its presence for seven centuries, where nations as such do not exist, but only a religious community, and which led Islam — not the religion, but political Islam — in its expansion to clash not only with the crusades, but also in Asia with the Hindus, the Chinese, and in Burma with the Buddhists, and where every territory that was ever Muslim must be returned to that dominion. Macron was left greatly weakened after the violent protests in France (REUTERS/Hannah McKay) As far as Europe is concerned, it is a situation already anticipated in the second half of the last century by who was its most outstanding journalist, unjustly condemned in Italian courts for "Islamophobia," in essence for having described the problem that France and Europe live today with remarkable accuracy, in books where "The Rage and the Pride" (2001) stands out, through which she broke a silence of years. Oriana Fallaci had a central argument that transcended that book: that Europe would not only lose the demographic war but also what today we would call the cultural war, since it was not only renouncing its Christian tradition, but also maintaining the sin of antisemitism — both realities widely demonstrated over the years. This was remembered when this Friday the 23rd, Macron called a shooting near Paris a "turning point," because one dead and five wounded would be "the first time that a terrorist act is committed planned to kill our compatriots... only for their supposed religion," forgetting the already habitual attacks against Jews and also Catholic priests, for which what he said is simply not true. Rightly, mistaken or not, in a different time, before dying (9-15-2006, Florence), Fallaci managed to know of another failure in the rescue of the European heritage, such as the failure to incorporate Christianity as constitutional cement. In my judgment, Europe lost its compass, its sense of mission, and moved away from its magnificent past on July 15, 2003, the day Valéry Giscard d'Estaing presented what was supposed to be the European Constitution, which never would be, neither approved nor promulgated. The former president had been appointed to lead the drafting of a project that would summarize and simplify the various treaties. However, although it was signed by the then 25 members of the Union, the failure was total, since it was never spoken of again after the ratification procedures suffered in referendum the negative vote of founding countries such as France (5-29-2005) and the Netherlands (6-1-2005), quite a surprise considering that, as would be repeated with the United Kingdom's Brexit, the entire elite, most political parties, media, and the business community were in favor. Although Spain did approve it, the referendum process was not continued, but, in my judgment, considering what happens today and Europe's passivity in defending its legacy, the true failure did not reside in the rejection of the approval of the constitutional proposal, but in something deeper, something that anticipated what happens today, since in my judgment the greatest disappointment was that it simply (did not want to) or could not incorporate Christianity, given that without doubt, Europe as a historical entity is a Christian creation. It was also shameful, since it was an omission that anticipated what is lived today in the communicational distortion, since it was not in any case about some specific article, but, just as the minutes I reviewed reflect, it was left out even of the enumeration of the cultural sources from which European values would derive. It is a pity, since, by rejecting Christianity, a source of great strength was lost to face the future of the European project, today adrift, without significant anchorage. France and Europe are in serious trouble, since what happened shows an agony of the European project, especially since even more than the religious, in the mob of these days predominates the rage of not feeling part of either the European project or France, a rage that is expressed in the senseless violence that has been lived as well as in the difficulty of controlling it, among other reasons, because of judicial sentences, which at least confuse, by the benign manner in which some have been treated — let us not forget — who have committed crimes. It must be repeated that in this situation the republican model of which France has felt proud for so long also fails, as does a motto that has lost meaning for part of the population: liberty, equality, fraternity, with the added tragedy that for a long time France has not had a debate without cancellations of those who disagree, nor without accusations of "fascist" versus "globalist." Many protesters mobilized with the flag of Palestine (REUTERS/Hannah McKay) Without doubt, the solution is not the document signed by more than a thousand military personnel in April 2001 that warned about "the surrender of the State," although what should have been another input was received with suspicion. In essence, the multiculturalism that has been the European vehicle for immigrants from the ex-colonies stopped working, with Angela Merkel responsible for the immigration crisis of 2015, Poland and Orbán's Hungary being the ones who were right about refuge for so many, without any review. Although they have no direct relation, what has now happened has been serious enough that, in the heat of this presidential contest, hopefully, France will react with the support of its great history. If it does not, perhaps it is because it does not have the answers because it still has not asked itself the right questions. Time to reread De Gaulle when he said that "the greatness of a nation is measured by its capacity to resist challenges," while for Napoleon "greatness does not lie in never having fallen, but in always rising again." @israelzipper Master's and PhD in Political Science (University of Essex), Bachelor of Laws (University of Barcelona), Lawyer (University of Chile), former presidential candidate (Chile, 2013)