France has been experiencing a rolling political crisis for several years, but based on media coverage, you would hardly know anything beyond the fact that some high school students are unhappy with large class sizes and run-down schools. 

The fact is, students are not leading the riots, although some still participate. What we are witnessing is well-planned political violence to undermine the French state and exacerbate political divisions that have been building for years. 

France is slowly drifting toward failed-state territory, though it's unlikely to experience a decisive political collapse anytime soon. Instead, you will see increasing dysfunction, more riots, political paralysis, and an elite incapable of reconciling the internal contradictions that have sent France hurtling toward political collapse. 

And that is the point of these protests — to drive the contradictions further and bring on that collapse as quickly as possible. The issue is never the issue; the issue is the revolution, which is why radicals from around the world are flocking to France to egg things on. 

First things first: the claim that France has been undergoing any form of "austerity" that harms the working class, leaves schools underfunded, and that the solution is more government spending is absurd. 

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The opposite is true, and I don't say that as a fiscal conservative. By any standards, France leads the OECD countries in government spending as a percentage of GDP. The OECD average is 43 percent of GDP, and the European average is about 50 percent (which helps explain how sclerotic their economies are). 

Update from France. Where so-called ‘French schoolboys’ who regularly sing songs celebrating the Bataclan massacre (look it up) and sporadically jump on police cars to proclaim that ‘allah’ commands them to murder police (look it up) are currently looting shops and setting buildings on fire. Because as we all know there’s no better way to demonstrate your commitment to learning and self-improvement than engaging in random destruction of property and praising jihadist mass murder. 

For all the BBC and co describe this as ‘a protest about books’ etc, the reality is that at its heart it’s a combination of hard left extremism, and imported, deeply hostile intifada-style radicalism. The latter is increasingly central to this type of social unrest across Europe.  https://x.com/Sarahsa09309757/status/2111439512844845084/video/1

France's government spending? 58 percent, putting it at the top of the list, giving the lie to the idea that France's government is parsimonious in any conceivable way. 

France is, for all intents and purposes, inching closer to the socialist utopia that the radical leftists say they want. More than half the population gets paid by the government in some form, either as a government employee or, more commonly, as a direct recipient of welfare. 

None of this is organic, whatever the media wants you to believe. It is the product of a transnational movement with ties to all the opponents of Western civilization united, with money from China, Iran, probably Russia, and others of our enemies, and the ground troops are the socialist- and communist-aligned groups who are working in all Western countries, including here. 

Anyone trying to contextualize these protests in conventional terms — it's about insufficient spending, school conditions, or fuel prices is either blowing smoke or simply incapable of understanding that there are radicals determined to replace Western governments with ones aligned with what they call the 'global south.' It's the "decolonization" agenda. 

It's why the Muslim Brotherhood is near the top of the leadership pyramid, right alongside the communists. 

The Palestinian flag is everywhere because it is the unifying symbol for anti-Westernists. That's why Islamism is so prominent. That's why Greta Thunberg is there. The girl who spent her teens avoiding going to school doesn't show up in France to protest for better school conditions. 

Will any of this topple the French government? That's the wrong question, because the government barely exists, and hasn't for quite a while. What still exists is the French state, which lacks unified political guidance because of paralysis. And the state will not collapse; it is eroding because its legitimacy is declining and its population is fractured, no longer seeing itself as one thing. 

The communists and Islamists are filling the political vacuum for the moment; they are still not strong enough to seize the state itself, but these riots will accelerate the erosion. 

The irony in all this is thick; the transnational elite keeps worrying about a backslide into authoritarianism, and as a consequence they keep taking steps to erode national unity, go easy on opponents of the state when they break the law and riot, and the ultimate result will most likely be... a descent into fascism as people get fed up. 

The same forces are at work in all European countries; riots in France are a preview for the entire continent, and for us if we keep going down this road. 

The biggest, and stupidest, myth in European politics, particularly popular in France, is that Europe suffers the consequences of "austerity" and "neoliberalism". In the biggest 5 countries in Europe, more than half of the population makes its income from the state, less than half from the private sector. This is what makes the problem of reducing the welfare state so impossible: more than half of the voters are net recipients. No surprise that Italy's budget has not been balanced in 100 years, France's in 50 years (ooh la la, l'austérité!!):

-France: 30 million from the state versus 21m private sector workers. State spending is 57% of GDP, taxes more than half the economy. The budget hasn't been balanced in the lifetime of most French (since 1974).

- Germany: 35 million adults from the state, versus 34 million from the private sector. 10% of the population is registered as severely disabled. Public spending is over half of GDP. Germany has had a continuous budget deficit since 2019.

-Italy: 23 million from the state, versus  20.5 million private-sector workers. Public spending is 51% of GDP.  Italy has had a budget deficit every year since 1925, for 100 years.

- Spain more people get their income from the state since 2024: 18.21 million from the public sector versus 17.9 million people working in the private sector. Since 2025, Spain also had more government employees than self-employed workers (autónomos) for the first time in history. State spending is at 45%, budget has not been balanced since 2007.

- UK: 54% of households now receive more in state benefits than they pay in taxes. State spending is 44.5% of GDP, taxes (40%) are at their highest since 1950, the budget hasn't been balanced since 2001, and 1 in 5 new cars is paid by the government through a bizarre state disability scheme (Motability).

When chaos like this proliferates, people reach for the next de Gaulle or, more likely, Francisco Franco. A strong leader who gets things under control. 

Early intervention, correctly identifying the problems, and stopping policies like mass migration could have helped. 

Now, I fear it is too late.