French Member of the European Parliament Marion Maréchal denounced the “taboo” around discussions of the underlying causes of the youth revolt spreading across the country, which she said is the failure to assimilate immigrant groups into French culture.
The demonstrations and riots ostensibly over a lack of school funding will hit their one-month anniversary this week, with mayhem and violence continuing despite thousands of arrests.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu told the Senate that 937 police officers and gendarmes, 149 school staff, and 248 students had been injured so far in the violent demonstrations. Meanwhile, Minister of National Education Édouard Geffray revealed that 7,950 people have been arrested, including 6,773 minors, during the protests.
Appearing on La Chaîne Info, French MEP Marion Maréchal said that the establishment media and political class in Paris have failed to address the root causes of the unrest, which are not the issues facing the education system, but rather failures within the immigration system and the ability to integrate foreign populations, including those born in France, into the culture, such as in hotspots like the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, which has seen decades of mass migration from North Africa’s Maghreb region.
“The link between these acts of violence is, for me, yet another symptom of the mass, unassimilated immigration that expresses itself through high school student mobilisation, just as it would express itself through a PSG match won or lost, through Bastille Day, through a demonstration for Gaza,” she said.
The president of the Identité-Libertés group in the European Parliament added that there is a section of “youth from immigrant backgrounds that seizes the slightest pretext to unleash its hatred of France, its institutions, and the uniform.”
Maréchal, a scion of the Le Pen political dynasty, also surmised that violence is not a bug but a feature of the demonstrations, arguing that it is a “tool claimed by the far-left” as they seek a “convergence of struggles” to advance their Marxist, revolutionary agenda.
While legacy media has often attempted to portray the riots as merely organic demonstrations of angered students, there have been indications from the start of far-left infiltration. A report from the intelligence arm of the Paris Police Prefecture accused the radical left La France Insoumise (France in Rebellion/LFI) party of presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon of having stoked and manipulated student groups into rioting.
This link between the far-left, the myriad of international causes, and the long-term impact of immigration has been cited by others, including Reconquête MEP Sarah Knafo, who remarked earlier this month: “What’s the connection between the supposed demands of the high school students and the Algerian, Moroccan, and Palestinian flags? What’s the connection with the ‘in the name of Allah’ chants we hear in so many videos?
“The connection to immigration is the elephant in the room that journalists don’t want to see!”
Knafo has been a leading voice backing the “vandals pay” proposal currently moving through the French legislature, which would impose fines of up to €10,000 per participant in violent and destructive riots, including those who could not be proven to have caused any damage. Knafo has said that the “thugs” and their families should be on the hook, not the taxpayers, vowing: “We will deduct this money from every single paycheck they receive, from the benefits their parents receive.”
Others outside of France have also made a connection between the riots and immigration, including U.S. President Donald Trump, who said last week: “What’s happening in France is nothing less than out of control mass migration. This isn’t about schools, this is about Islam wanting to take over a once great Country!”
