The French Conception Is Burning: This Is Not a Strike — But an Attack on the Republic | Amit Yagur

Amit Yagur argues that the severe violence in French cities is not a general strike or an escalated social protest, but a systematic attack on symbols of the republic, stemming from religious-cultural unrest and an alternative sectarian identity. According to him, the arsons and clashes are a direct continuation of the summer 2023 riots, and ignoring the religious-cultural component as a central factor is ideological blindness.

Amit Yagur analyzes the wave of violence in France and argues that the official media framing of the events as a 'general strike in the public sector' is a deliberate deception. According to him, while some protesters, teachers and doctors, are indeed protesting the cost of living and working conditions, the severe violence — arson of schools, police stations, and banks — is a separate phenomenon. Yagur links the arsons to the summer 2023 riots, when France burned following the death of a teenager of Algerian origin during a police check, and to systematic arson of schools in the suburbs over the past decade. He criticizes the old conception of the political and media elite in Paris, which attributes the violence to social neglect and unemployment, and notes that despite the injection of tens of billions of euros into urban renewal programs, the gap between young people in the suburbs and the values of the republic — secularism and civil law — is only widening. Yagur argues that France is failing to integrate second- and third-generation immigrants, and that this identity vacuum is being filled by an alternative sectarian and religious identity, combined with radical groups and anarchists who see violence as a legitimate tool. He states that ignoring the religious-cultural component as a central driving factor is ideological blindness, and that as long as the leadership continues to treat the arsons as escalated social protest, the flames will continue to spread.