by Guy Millière
High school students seeking better educational conditions have no reason to wave Palestinian flags or shout "Free Palestine", "We are children of Gaza," or write "October 7. Day of Celebration" on walls.
The founder and leader of France Unbowed, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, is a Trotskyist who, already in his youth, embraced the concept of "permanent revolution".
Mélenchon, over the years, has made no secret of his desire for a radical transformation of France. He supports the Islamization of the country and advocates a "great replacement" of the native French population with a new demographic from the Muslim world that would constitute what he calls the "new France."
With antisemitism widespread among young Muslims living in France's 751 "no-go zones" — suburban enclaves where police no longer venture and where Muslim gangs and radical imams hold sway — Mélenchon, like other representatives of his party, now publicly makes antisemitic remarks.
High school students seeking better educational conditions have no reason to wave Palestinian flags or shout "Free Palestine", "We are children of Gaza," or write "October 7. Day of Celebration" on walls.
The rioters express support for not only the Palestinian cause but also for Islamic terrorism.
The French government has basically appeared impotent and weak.
The only leaders who pointed out that the events were primarily an Islamist and leftist insurrection were those from Marine Le Pen's National Rally party and a few other right-leaning politicians. MEP Marion Maréchal stated that an "Islamist spirit of revenge" is at work. Revenge for what? For the French welcoming Islamists into their country and showering the immigrants with benefits?
Meanwhile, France's riots have been spreading across Europe to Belgium, Greece, Italy, Ireland and Austria. Behind France's riots, according to investigative journalist Asra Nomani, are "Communists, unions and a global propaganda network."
"From France to the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Greece and India, adults with deep pockets are tapping France's school protests and turning a domestic education dispute into a platform for broader political and ideological confrontation." — Asra Nomani, Fox News, .
"The communist Red and the Islamist Greens have nothing in common but a common enemy, the Judeo-Christian, capitalist, free West, led by the U.S. Their goal is to dismantle us." — Mike Gonzalez, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, quoted by Asra Nomani, Fox News, .
The recent riots in France have mainly been described as a revolt of high school students, stemming from deteriorating conditions, overcrowding and understaffing in French high schools (lycées). That presentation is largely inaccurate. Although students were incited by a few agitators to voice grievances, political leaders, primarily from the political left, immediately stepped in to urge them to go further and resort to violence.
Many students apparently did not need much urging. Alerted by social media, labor-led activists and members of Muslim gangs from the suburbs joined their ranks. Trash cans were set ablaze, followed by school buildings. Firefighters arriving to extinguish the blazes were attacked and police officers assaulted. Police vehicles and a fire truck were torched. Teachers were physically attacked and, in at least one instance, doused with gasoline. More than 700 police officers were injured, some seriously, as well as more than a hundred teachers and school officials.
What happened was not an accident. The protests have been fanned by the direct involvement of France's main left-wing party, La France Insoumise ("France Unbowed"). Almost all the political leaders who urged the students to go further were members of France Unbowed — a "coincidence" that should come as no surprise.
The founder and leader of France Unbowed, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, is a Trotskyist who, already in his youth, embraced the concept of "permanent revolution". After belonging to the Internationalist Communist Organization (the French branch of the Fourth International), he joined the left wing of France's Socialist Party, a move that enabled him to become a member of parliament and from June 2001 to May 2022, even serve as a minister in a left-wing government. He left the Socialist Party in 2008 to rally other Trotskyists around him to form an even more radical movement, the Left Party. In 2016, he founded France Unbowed.
Since then, he has ceaselessly urged hatred toward the police, repeatedly declared at public rallies that police officers are murderers and used the slogan "the police kill." He has aligned himself with groups that engage in violence and has paved the way for Raphaël Arnault — founder of The Young Guard, one of France's leading Antifa groups — to become a member of parliament. The Young Guard incites violence and has physically assaulted what they consider "right wing" individuals. Several of its members beat to death a young conservative Catholic, Quentin Deranque, in Lyon on February 12, 2026. Two parliamentary assistants to Raphaël Arnault, Jacques-Elie Favrot and Adrien Besseyre, were charged with intentional homicide and placed in pre-trial detention.
Mélenchon, over the years, has made no secret of his desire for a radical transformation of France. He supports the Islamization of the country and advocates a "great replacement" of the native French population with a new demographic from the Muslim world that would constitute what he calls the "new France." He has forged ties with Islamists and "pro-Palestinian" movements. He recruited Rima Hassan, a Syrian-born young woman of Palestinian and Kurdish ancestry, who frequently appears by his side wearing a keffiyeh, the Palestinian headscarf popularized by the late Palestinian terrorist leader, Yasser Arafat. She supports the Iranian-backed Islamist terrorist organization Hamas — describing its actions as "legitimate" and asserting its "right to armed struggle". Hassan speaks at high schools and universities, where she advocates hatred against Israel and Israeli Jews. The leaders of France Unbowed generally do not hide that they share her views. France Unbowed is, in fact, the only major French party whose leaders have refused to call Hamas a terrorist organization.
With antisemitism widespread among young Muslims living in France's 751 "no-go zones" — suburban enclaves where police no longer venture and where Muslim gangs and radical imams hold sway — Mélenchon, like other representatives of his party, now publicly makes antisemitic remarks.
Mélenchon has run for president three times, garnering around 20% of the vote on each occasion — principally through securing an extremely high proportion of the Muslim vote (69% in 2022). He plans to run again in the 2027 presidential election. While he probably realizes he will not win, he nevertheless appears to plan to use the campaign to mobilize his supporters. It is against this backdrop that the recent riots should probably be viewed.
While the riots originated in high schools, they quickly became something profoundly different. High school students seeking better educational conditions have no reason to wave Palestinian flags or shout "Free Palestine", "We are children of Gaza," or write "October 7. Day of Celebration" on walls.
Extremely visible in the recent riots was a deep, intense hatred of the established order. Although two high school teachers were murdered in the recent past — Samuel Paty was beheaded in 2020, and Dominique Bernard had his throat slit in 2023 -- this was the first time in France that so many police officers, teachers, firefighters and fire trucks were attacked during riots.
The rioters express support for not only the Palestinian cause but also for Islamic terrorism. Many repeatedly chanted the name of Mohammed Merah — the murderer of Jewish children and a rabbi at the Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse in 2012. In a church that was stormed in Soullans, a small village in Western France, a group of young Muslims and leftists played a song by a rapper praising both Mohammed Merah and Salah Abdeslam, who is the sole surviving terrorist from the 2015 attack on the Bataclan concert hall and cafés in Paris.
Mélenchon, rather than disavowing the MPs from his party who incited violence, instead merely stated that "combat discipline" was required.
Many leftist and Islamist movements, however, apparently saw an opportunity to fan the flames.
France's President Emmanuel Macron has remained basically silent about the riots. He did say that the police response was too "harsh and lacking empathy" – sparking fury among many police officers.
"Macron is a coward," stated National Rally MP Matthieu Vallet, a former police officer himself; "he's scared stiff." Vallet recalled that Macron had shown the same attitude when riots broke out across France after the death of a young criminal, Nahel Merzouk, and more recently, when Muslim gangs from the suburbs swept into Paris, where they ransacked bank branches, restaurants, and shops during the recent football World Cup.
The French government has basically appeared impotent and weak. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, carefully ignoring the insurrectionary and Islamic nature of the riots, called for a moment of "democratic dialogue" in high schools. He did not implicate France Unbowed, or even denounce the party.
The only leaders who pointed out that the events were primarily an Islamist and leftist insurrection were those from Marine Le Pen's National Rally party and a few other right-leaning politicians. MEP Marion Maréchal stated that an "Islamist spirit of revenge" is at work. Revenge for what? For the French welcoming Islamists into their country and showering the immigrants with benefits?
The French mainstream media did not show all the footage of the riots, Instead, they insisted on framing the unrest as a high school student movement, while glossing over the Islamist and leftist dimensions of the events.
Polls show that a great number of French citizens realize that France is not only economically and financially ruined but also teetering on the brink of chaos, and that they are extremely anxious about the future of the country and hope for a profound political change.
All polls continue to indicate that Le Pen has a strong chance of winning the presidential election set to take place in France in six months.
Security experts warn that the recent riots are a wake-up call, foreshadowing actions France Unbowed might take before or during the presidential election to try to prevent Le Pen from winning, or should she win regardless, to stop her from actually assuming the presidency.
In France today, there are effectively two populations. One, attached to law, order and France's cultural identity, is watching helplessly as the country plunges into a deepening catastrophe. The other population, that of the "no-go zones" and Islamic neighborhoods, is participating in the riots and represents the "new France" that Mélenchon is invoking.
The police, who stand for law and order, face a government and a president that appear paralyzed by the unfolding events. The violent leftists and Muslims participating in the riots and the leftists supporting them have become increasingly emboldened. The gangs controlling the no-go zones — and now even certain neighborhoods in Paris — have large quantities of weapons and appear to be relying not so much on improved education as on drug trafficking.
Meanwhile, France's riots have begun spreading across Europe to Belgium, Greece, Italy, Ireland and Austria. Behind France's riots, according to investigative journalist Asra Nomani, are "Communists, unions and a global propaganda network":
"From France to the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Greece and India, adults with deep pockets are tapping France's school protests and turning a domestic education dispute into a platform for broader political and ideological confrontation....
"In a digital analysis of scores of news articles, social media posts and public statements, Fox News Digital has identified 50 organizations in the French student protest movement and its wider network of supporters and international amplifiers, revealing an activist ecosystem extending far beyond the students who launched the demonstrations.
"Of the network of 50 groups, 15 are student or youth groups, including several communist youth movements and a Muslim student association.
"The remaining 35 adult groups include a dozen labor unions; eight communist or socialist organizations; five groups spanning other issues from taxes to parental advocacy, environmental activism, economic justice, international media and diaspora organizing; five civil-rights or human-rights groups; four political parties, including La France Insoumise, or France Unbowed, and the French Communist Party; one Palestinian advocacy group that complete the 'red-green' alliance of leftists with Muslims....
"'What we're seeing here is the same Red-Green ecosystem that disrupts infrastructure choke holds in our country such as the Brooklyn Bridge, college campuses and congressional hearings,' Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital....
"'The communist Red and the Islamist Greens have nothing in common but a common enemy, the Judeo-Christian, capitalist, free West, led by the U.S.,' Gonzalez said. 'Their goal is to dismantle us.'"
Dr. Guy Millière,, a professor at the University of Paris, is the author of 27 books on France and Europe.
Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22917/france-under-fire
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