Le Pen Warns of State Power Erosion Amid French Riots

Marine Le Pen, the French sovereigntist presidential candidate, has highlighted the perceived collapse of state power in France, urging voters to consider the “extremely important choice” they face in the upcoming elections.

Le Pen criticized the government’s failure to predict the escalation of violence during Saturday’s riots, suggesting it’s yet another indication of the government’s diminishing authority. She pointed to a chaotic situation resulting from both incompetence and misguided ideology, leaving citizens in turmoil, as she discussed her views with Franceinfo.

“The government has lost control of everything. It’s chaos—migratory chaos, security chaos, budgetary chaos,” she asserted. In her view, resolving this chaos doesn’t require new legislation; rather, it demands a decisive application of existing laws. Le Pen positioned herself as the candidate committed to restoring order.

She declared, “I am the one who would give the orders that have not been issued to the police. I am the one who will mobilize.” According to her, police morale is suffering because they are being held responsible for maintaining order on the streets, when, in fact, it is the government that has failed to provide necessary support and clear directives.

The French government has admitted it was slow to respond on that day, losing control in certain areas. Reflecting on this decline, Le Pen expressed her concerns:

“I have the feeling that we are facing a state that is collapsing; we are facing a dying power, a waning administration that has lost its grip, can no longer maintain control, fails to anticipate events, and is, in part, mired in ideological denial.”

She added, “What happened on Saturday was predictable, and we’ve seen these trends emerge at almost every protest over the past years.” Le Pen foresees that in six months, voters will be forced to choose between continuing down a path of degradation or reclaiming control to protect the French populace.

In response to these events, Macron’s government has imposed curfews in several cities. With police helicopters patrolling the skies of Paris, Le Pen remarked that these widespread curfews disproportionately affect innocent citizens, asserting she would adopt more precise and effective measures to manage riots instead of imposing blanket restrictions.

“I am not at all sure the helicopter in the skies over Paris has any effectiveness whatsoever,” she noted. Le Pen suggested that her administration would bar hard-left extremists from entering the country prior to protests. She mentioned that the government already has comprehensive files on these individuals, who are monitored under the counter-terrorism framework.

Taking action based on existing intelligence, she argued, would help stymie the “quasi-insurrectional protests” that these extremists aim to incite.

The French state acknowledges that the extreme fringe of far-left activists involved in the most severe violence are engaged in what could be described as ultra-left terrorism. Following the fire that consumed Limoges city hall, investigators specializing in counter-terrorism have taken over the case, and prominent mayors have discussed a network of training camps for ultra-left urban warfare that gave rise to such attacks.

Le Pen contended that these networks are not isolated from the political left as a whole, referencing an “ecosystem” linked to hard-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon. She stated in an interview:

“There is an ecosystem. The French people need to know. There is an ecosystem of associations that are subsidized, financed by the money of French taxpayers who are struggling to pay their taxes.”

“This includes a multitude of politicized far-left associations… I think that public subsidies, whether at the municipal, departmental, regional, or national level, must not support politicized associations. Only non-political associations should receive state funding, funded by a diverse population with varying political views. We must end the subsidization of political associations.”