Is France burning? Absolument
For the first time in many years, the French President appeared on TV on November 14 wearing glasses instead of his usual contact lenses (everyone had long forgotten that Chirac had poor eyesight). The glasses indicated that Chirac wished to appear as an authoritative elder statesman. That is to say, something important was happening in the country. It took the world a few hours to understand the nature of the crisis in the French suburbs (the equivalent of Britain's poorest council estates), but even now after a few weeks France refuses to face the meaning of the crisis. Neither the government nor the French people itself seem to understand how serious the situation is, and this misunderstanding is a symptom of how France is dramatically divided into two camps.
What really caused the riots in French suburbs is not so much the death of two young men trying to escape the police, but the speech given by the (in)famous home secretary Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy one night in a suburb where up to 40% of the population are unemployed. A huge crowd of youngsters were shouting at him. Escorted by the police, he addressed the people from a balcony and promised to "get rid of this scum". What he forgot, is that the "scum" were actually the children of his audience.
The main point to understand about the riots is that there aren't enough common criminals to burn more than 3,000 cars in a few days all over the country. Nor are there enough Al-Qaida secret fighters; this makes Mr. Sarkosy's proposal to expel those amongst rioters that are not French sound like a pure political strategy to make one forget how French these people are. They are the shame of arrogant France, which proudly sells her Republican integration to the world as model for how to deal with immigrants. How ironic that Mr. De Villepin happens to be dealing with this crisis after the Iraqi one, after France took such pride in standing up to American arrogance.
When you think about it, the starting point of the famous May 1968 insurrection, which paralysed the country for a month and led to major changes in French society, was a request to allow boys and girls not to be separated in their dormitories at university. No one analysed it as the will a bunch of sexual maniacs, but the riots of today are blamed on a criminal mania afflicting those involved. We should remember that the events of 1968 led to the whole youth questioning the moral order, an order which was disconnected with the mood of the time.
What is interesting about the riots of today is not so much the violence relative to May 1968, but mostly that this youth is asking for something the government cannot give them. They ask for jobs and equal chances. Ten years ago, no one would have been surprised about such a revolt, since the only debate at the time was: When will it happen? Promising to deal these social problems was a major factor in bringing Mr. Chirac to power, but time went by and the issue slowly faded out of the agenda.
Something is much more scary than the panic and the flames. It is the peacefulness of city centres. Ask average French student what they think about the situation and you will find absolutely no sympathy for suburban uprising. Only far left groups will try to convince you into a demonstration in support of the movement in the suburbs. Arguably, only one person died in the 1968 events, and only by accident. Should the few (still horrible) murders that took place in the latest riots lead us to reject the whole message? The truth is that this is not a struggle between the young generation and the older one, but a struggle between a geographical minority (not to say ethnic) and the rest of the country, the latter being very comfortable, even complacent about the current situation in the suburbs.
Hopefully this mess will prove to be a chance to tackle the current ill-driven integration policy, provide greater social justice and give the people of the suburbs equal opportunities at last.
France is burning and only denying it is the true violence.
Pierre Maarek is a student at Sciences Po Paris.
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