Unrest continues in France. Seeking context, I spoke with one of that nation’s most insightful observers, Noëlle Lenoir, a former French Supreme Court Justice. See our August conversation and Public’s recent coverage of how anti-police activism contributed to riots, media misinformation about the riots, and the Left-Islamist alliance. — MS
Michael: Tell us what is happening, Noëlle.
Noëlle: We no longer have a government. [President Emmanuel] Macron is totally disconnected and, in my view, afraid. He is afraid because he wants to remain in office until the very end. He wants another life, and he has already said he wants to come back in five years and run again, which is not forbidden. He does not know what to do.
He spoke twice, and both times it was a disaster. The first time was when these riots began, with so-called young people from the schools and universities. In fact, they were militants of the far left, and also immigrants. As you may know, official statistics show that 34% of immigrants come to France to study at university. Then 25% come to join their families, which is called family reunification (le regroupement familial). Then around 15% are supposed to come to work. So you can imagine that there is an overrepresentation of young people who are supposed to be at university but do nothing. They are there because they want to leave their country.
Macron spoke at the very beginning, not on October 17 but two or three days before, when the riots started with young students, Palestine militants, and Palestinian flags. He asked the police to show empathy with the demonstrators. For the police who were beaten and attacked, with around one thousand of them wounded, the fact that he asked them to show sympathy with these young people, some of whom are not young at all, was felt by all the security forces in France as an insult. I don’t think anyone still supports Macron and the government.
What is amazing is that he said nothing. He just said, “I want the judges to be very tough.” But as you know, in France a large part of the judiciary is very politicized on the far left. They are organized in trade unions. One of the main judges’ unions, the Magistrates’ Union (Le Syndicat de la Magistrature), published a guide years ago, revised and republished in 2024, in which they explain to demonstrators how to escape from the police and how to make it harder for the police to prevent them from stealing, looting, and rioting. It is absolutely amazing.
So when Macron says, “I want the judges to be very tough and to inflict very severe sanctions on the rioters, the looters, all those who attacked the police,” it is null and void, because he has never said anything against this union, and neither has the hierarchy of the judiciary itself. In my view, this union is a political party. They are militants, and they should not exist.
