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For many of us the news stories about the riots that have broken out in French cities are just another story on news channels overwhelmed by stories about Iran, the midterm elections and the price of gasoline. I was like that myself, only wondering why French youth were so upset with their schools. But as the violence and size of the demonstrations increased with the presence of far left and Islamist groups I began to pay more attention, and I didn't like what I saw.
As I write this not only are Paris, Marseille and other cities in France again experiencing far left and Islamist led demonstrations, but so are cities in Italy including Milan and Rome. Demonstrations are also taking place in Madrid, Lisbon, Athens, Dublin and in cities in Albania, Serbia and Belgium that are mostly led by student groups protesting a variety of local issues like housing shortages, and government corruption. But even in most of those cases leftist and Islamist groups are at work on the fringes.
The riots in France began as high school and university student demonstrations protesting severe underfunding, dilapidated facilities, overcrowded classrooms, and teacher shortages in French public schools. One factor stands out for what precipitated these protests over the shortcomings in the French education system is that spending on France's bloated welfare state for social welfare programs, pensions and healthcare accounts for 59% of its annual budget, the largest of any nation on Earth, while only 10% is spent on education.
To pay for this system of social welfare, France has among the highest tax rates in the western world. Employer social security contributions average 45% of gross salary, while employee contributions vary from 22% to 25%. The tax on consumer goods is 20%. These taxes are a burden on taxpayers but in France over 50% of households pay no tax so that while benefiting from the system they have no hand in the game. By comparison in socialist Denmark everyone pays some tax.
France's financial woes have been further strained by an influx of illegal immigrants, and asylum seekers primarily from Sub-Saharan Central and West Africa, and the Horn of Africa. Those granted Asylum seeker status receive an allowance with a housing supplement if they cannot be housed in a reception center, have immediate comprehensive access to the French health insurance system and even receive discounts on public transportation. Undocumented aliens receive only medical aid, emergency care, and their children can attend French public schools but even those things cost the French government.
During an October school break, the movement rapidly spiraled into a broader, nationwide anti-government rebellion. Labor unions, farmers, and other worker groups concerned about possible government austerity plans joined the battle. Soon far-left, Islamist and Antifa groups hijacked the reasonably peaceful student demonstrations escalating protests into coordinated actions that led to the barricading, ransacking, and burning of high schools and public buildings. The violence spread to 40 cities in France as Muslim groups and radical Islamic organizations joined with other leftist groups.
Stores were broken into and buildings set ablaze including the 200-year-old town hall in Limoges. On the news I noticed that most of the rioters were older and outnumbered the students. Things appeared more organized and confrontational than before. Now the French tricolor flag was less noticeable and the Palestinian flag and the flags of other Arab nations more prominent. Other signs referenced the French Revolution while another sign juxtaposed a picture of President Macron and a Guillotine.
Paul Amar, a French Journalist reporting on the rioting in Marseille, said Islamist leaders were carrying lists of the addresses of Jewish owned businesses. He further reported that on at least one street in Marseille, every business owned by Jews had been set on fire while shops owned by Muslims had been left untouched. Observers were reminded of the terrors of the infamous Kristallnacht of November 9, 1938, in Germany when Nazi thugs destroyed Jewish businesses, burned synagogues with Jews beaten on the sidewalk or pulled from their homes and imprisoned.
What is worrying is that demonstrations that begin protesting local issues are being taken over by far left and radical Islamist groups, the so-called "Red - Green Coalition." This same coalition exists in our own country and were responsible for the demonstrations on many college and university campuses last year and also a rise in virulent antisemitism. Their goals here and in Europe are the same. The “red” faction seeks a global socialist or communist power structure, whereas the “green” faction aims for an Islamic society or caliphate along with the destruction of Israel and the United States. While in the end their divergent goals will lead them to destroy each other, left unchecked that will come only after they destroy the west.
I hope that as Americans vote in the midterms, they remember what is happening in Europe. A vote for one of the so-called Democratic Socialists who infest the Democratic Party or for any Democrat who supports "open borders" and a return to a policy of unchecked illegal immigration as occurred under President Joe Biden is setting the United States down the same path that led to the violent attacks on western society and culture occurring in France and other western European nations. For the sake of your children and their children please remember that.
Thomas Kirkpatrick Sr. is a Silver Creek resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com