For about two weeks, a massive wave of protests has been sweeping France, which has turned into widespread riots and vandalism that have affected several major cities. Fierce debates emerged about the true identity of those behind these events. Immediately, the far-right nationalist parties inside and outside France rushed to hold the government, immigrants, and residents of foreign origins fully responsible for the crisis.
The far-right Jordan Bardella, leader of the French National Rally party, linked the protests to immigration and security problems, and considered them evidence of the failure of current government policies. He attributed a large part of the violence and chaos witnessed by the protests to the lack of integration of groups of immigrants into the French social fabric and the worsening state of social separation in marginalized neighborhoods.
Bardella criticized the government of President Emmanuel Macron and described its policies as leftist that failed to control borders, manage immigration, and control security chaos. Bardella called for the adoption of stricter procedures and policies regarding immigration and asylum, and the protection of local residents from the French in areas affected by protests and riots. In press statements, Bardella called on President Macron to apologize and resign, accusing the government of failing to protect citizens and public order and being lenient toward crime and integration.
Although Bardella acknowledged the validity of the legitimate social demands of a group of protesters, he continued to link manifestations of violence with the failure of integration and immigration policies, targeting the electoral base of the far-right movement, which places security, national identity, and focusing on the interests of the local population at the top of its traditional priorities. Bardella used these events to strengthen his party's position as an alternative force capable of restoring security and order, a discourse that the party adopted extensively as it prepares to run in the presidential elections expected next year.
Bardella's speech is based on considering the demonstrators as categories of new immigrants and foreigners who have failed to integrate into French society, are motivated by cultural hostility toward the West, and do not carry the values of the French Republic.
This narrative of the French extreme right, linking crime and vandalism to the issue of immigration and borders, was followed by statements made by leaders from the American Republican Party and the MAGA movement, led by President Donald Trump and his deputy J.D. Vance, who described the tragic scenes of burning some government headquarters as evidence of the failure of policies of integration and cultural coexistence.
President Trump urged France to close its borders. He said on his platform, Truth Social, that France is burning and the migration of people coming from a completely different world carrying hatred in their hearts has torn apart that once great country. He added: Close your borders and tighten control before it is too late.
During an election event on Saturday evening in the US state of Kentucky, Trump said sarcastically to an audience of his supporters that the student protests in France are evidence of out-of-control immigration and what he called an attempt by Islam to control the country.
However, official facts refute this forced link between the protests and the immigration factor. The French authorities and police officially confirmed that there was no direct link between the migrants and the sabotage acts. Indeed, Prime Minister Sebastian Lechourneau and Interior Minister Laurent Nunez pointed the finger at subversive elements belonging to far-left radical groups, supported by criminals and deviants, who took advantage of the protest of French citizens, students, trade unions, and civil society organizations against the lack of school resources and the high cost of living, to carry out looting, rioting, and setting fires to buildings and cars.
Observers believe that the fall 2026 protests in France did not have an ethnic character and did not carry social demands specifically related to immigration. Rather, they erupted as a legitimate student demand movement protesting the deterioration of school infrastructure, the absence of air conditioners in summer and winter in classrooms, and the shortage of teachers.
They believe that what happened is that, days after the start of the protest movement, the anger expanded and was fueled by trade unions and segments of society affected by the sharp rise in the cost of living and fuel prices, at a time when the government resorted to reducing public spending and freezing the salaries of civil servants to reduce the budget deficit. The streets were crowded with demonstrators, their numbers exceeding half a million people, and they formed a broad national movement with purely economic and social motives, which included French people of all origins and cultural backgrounds.
There are fundamental legal and social facts that analysts have revealed as they try to disentangle the social background of some young men who engage in violence in the marginal suburbs of major French cities.
They say that the protesters are neither foreigners nor immigrants in the legal sense, but that the vast majority of them are second- and third-generation French citizens, born and educated in French schools. Official French statistics indicate that those living in the marginal neighborhoods of French cities suffer from structural marginalization, resulting from weak official investments, a lack of real job opportunities, and daily discrimination.
Many believe that blaming immigrants for events represents a political escape from facing the crisis of an educational and social system that has failed to fulfill its promises of social advancement and societal justice for its children. They believe that what France is facing today is an explosion resulting from economic accumulations and a stifling crisis in the public education sector, accompanied by weak purchasing power. These are structural issues that require comprehensive development and social solutions, not narratives of division and blaming vulnerable groups.
