Editorial published on FigaroVox – The vice-president of Reconquête! calls for a state of emergency to put an end to the riots.

Civil war. These two words send shivers down our spines. Those who dare utter them are immediately suspected of wanting it. Those who dare announce it are immediately accused of fuelling it. Yet how many French people have already used them to express their anxiety about the future?

Civil war is one of the most horrible forms of war. It is when religious, ethnic or political groups belonging to the same country clash in an armed struggle. It is a war that divides and kills even in the same neighbourhoods, the same streets, the same buildings. This shadow hangs over the future of France for many French people. It is on everyone’s mind, but not on any official language. When it is mentioned, it is always in a roundabout way. « Today, we live side by side. I’m afraid that tomorrow we’ll be living face to face », Gérard Colomb modestly said on leaving the Ministry of the Interior.

When we look at the images of urban violence and rioting that have been looped on the news channels for several dozen hours, this evanescent shadow suddenly becomes a real prospect. The media may talk of incidents and « legitimate anger », but the evidence cannot be hidden: all the conditions for civil war are being assembled before our very eyes.

These evenings and nights in June, all over France, French people are witnessing first-hand the cumulative consequences of mass immigration, the Islamist offensive, laxity in the justice system, the retreat of the State, the bankruptcy of education and the subservience of our governments. The tragic death of this young man, for which the courts will of course have to establish responsibility calmly and swiftly, is merely a pretext. Let’s be sure, if one day we were to experience the tragedy of a civil war, it would certainly begin with a riot similar to the one that is unfolding before our eyes. As in 2005, as today, a death will be the pretext for riots that will get out of hand.

Every time the state backs down in the face of a firework, an assault grenade, a pump-action shotgun or a burning police station, it’s one step closer to civil war.

When these gangs of thugs, fired up by decades of impunity and growing in numbers, bring out the weapons hidden in their basements, when not just hundreds but thousands of areas are lost, then the police and fire brigade will be overwhelmed, then the state will be out of its depth. They will no longer be able to cope, and the tipping point will come: citizens will decide to protect themselves because they can no longer stand watching their cars burnt, their public services attacked, their shops looted, police officers assaulted, their country humiliated.

Every time the State backs down in the face of these urban guerrillas, it’s one step closer to civil war; every time the State backs down in the face of a firework mortar, an assault grenade, a pump-action shotgun or a burning police station, it’s one step closer to civil war; every time the State backs down in the face of an assaulted policeman, drug trafficking or the importation of weapons, it’s one step closer to civil war; every time the state backs down in the face of attacks on firefighters, torn-up national flags, hatred of the uniform, the intifada in the suburbs, « Allah Akbar » and « death to the Jews », it’s one step closer to civil war; every time the state backs down in the face of clandestine mosques, preaching of hatred, Salafist networks and community demands for hallal and veils, it’s one step closer to civil war.

And the problem is that for forty years, the state has done nothing but retreat. Yes, the riots of summer 2023 are worse than those of autumn 2005, and those of tomorrow will be worse than those of today.

If we have to throw away the honour of our police officers, trample underfoot the rule of law, pour on a few more billions, pity ourselves on our French past, they will do anything, anything to gain a few months or a few years of appeasement with the housing estates.

Firstly, because no lessons have been learned since then: at least four million new immigrants have arrived on our soil, the clientelism of elected representatives with Islamists has accelerated like never before, the police and gendarmerie have not been given the means to be respected, the justice system is bled dry, the prisons are overcrowded, billions have been poured in blindly to temporarily buy social peace and, in the end, feed the territorial war.

Secondly, because our leaders are prepared to do anything to avoid having to face up to the consequences of their policies. If they have to throw away the honour of our police officers, trample underfoot the rule of law, pour on a few more billions, and be self-flagellating about our French past, they will do anything and everything to gain a few months or a few years of appeasement with the housing estates. This is exactly what Emmanuel Macron has done. While France burns, the President of the Republic has scorned the independence of the judiciary and the presumption of innocence without restraint. Instructions for our security forces not to intervene were discreetly issued.

Finally, 2023 is far more serious than 2005 because, for the first time in our modern history, an entire political party has sided with the thugs, the riff-raff and the rioters. In twenty years, the Left has definitively abandoned Jaurès and Clémenceau. Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his followers have chosen their camp, that of disorder and violence against honest citizens. They are fanning the flames, insulting our police and encouraging chaos. They denied us the right to mourn Arnaud Beltrame, Lola and the innocent children of Annecy, but are now wallowing in the crudest recuperation.

Unlike Jean-Luc Mélenchon, I don’t want this civil war. Unlike Emmanuel Macron, I don’t want to contribute to the causes of this civil war. Their unbearable platitudes on stage about « living together » won’t be enough.

Along with Éric Zemmour and Reconquête, and joined by leaders of the Républicains, we have called for an immediate state of emergency to protect the French people from the rioters. Much more will be needed, of course, to tackle the root causes of the evil and avoid the civil war that is approaching.

We have the constancy and lucidity to take stock of the situation, we have the solutions to put an end to immigration, eradicate Islamism, rearm our justice system, re-educate our young people and give France back something to love, we have the courage and the will to change everything. But the hours are ticking by and we are getting closer to the civil war that we fear so much. Our duty as politicians is to do everything we can to prevent it.