The French riots threaten the state’s very existence

How dangerous are riots to the very existence of the French state? Most commentators avoid the question and concentrate on causes. The more whimsical attribute cause to that clichéd French historical reflex of insurrection; the sociologists to poverty and discrimination in the banlieues (suburbs); the far-left to French institutional racism and right-wing policies; conservative politicians to excess immigration, the ghettoization of France and the state’s retreat from enforcing law and order. But a growing chorus now evokes an unmentionable potential consequence: civil war. Of most concern is that those voices include groups with first-hand knowledge of the state of the country: the police, the army, domestic intelligence.

On Friday, following three days of violent nation-wide rioting, arson, looting, attacks on police stations, town halls and even politicians, two of France’s police trade unions that speak for 90 per cent of the 150,000-strong force published a warning to the political class. Their communiqué declared that they ‘can no longer put up with the diktat of these violent minorities’.