Geadi: France has fallen into the hands of the far left and illegal immigrants

France has “fallen into the hands of the far left and illegal immigrants”, Elam member of the European Parliament Geadis Geadi said on Monday, as the day’s plenary session debated the ongoing school protests which have swept the country in recent weeks.

“We cannot remain indifferent to the events unfolding in France, because it is not a distant land but a member state at the heart of Europe. Unfortunately, France is not merely at risk, it has already fallen. It has fallen into hands of the far left and illegal immigrants,” he told the Strasbourg chamber.

He added that “the only hope for saving this historic nation is a change of government”, and a new government which will “restore national dignity and pride to the French people”.

“We must realise that today it is France, but tomorrow it will be Sweden, Romania, Germany, Greece, and Cyprus. Europe cannot look the other way when a member state has surrendered to chaos and anarchy,” he said.

He said that he stands in full agreement with French far-right MEP Marion Marechal, who leads the Identity-Liberties party, and who had earlier addressed the chamber.

Marechal had said that “the left” in France is “contributing to a climate of insurrection because, for them, political violence is not collateral damage but an accepted means of struggle”, before mentioning fellow French MEP Anthony Smith as one who “encourages and participates in the blockades”.

Smith had been on the streets in the city of Reims, in France’s northeast, on Friday, and had remonstrated with a police officer who had thrown a smoke grenade into a crowd of protesting schoolchildren, though Reims’ chief prosecutor Francois Schneider had insisted that the officer had acted “entirely within the law” to “maintain public order”.

This, he said, is because the schoolchildren were throwing stones at the police.

Marechal accuses protesters of shouting ‘Wallahi, kill her’

Marechal on Monday said that the French left “exploits the fault lines of a multicultural society made explosive by unassimilated non-European immigration”.

“Here, again, it fans the flames of anti-French hatred, post-colonial resentment, a victim mentality, and an Islamist desire for revenge. ‘Wallahi, kill her’ was heard during the mob attack on a female police officer who had been thrown to the ground,” she said.

She then said that international anti-fascist movement Antifa “carries with it the seeds of civil war”.

Protests have been ongoing since late last month in France with teenagers demonstrating against what they have decried as a critical lack of funding in schools across the country.

A total of 5,000 people, mostly teenagers, have been arrested since the protests began, while dozens have been injured, and damage caused to property is estimated in the tens of millions of euros.

French Higher Education Minister Philippe Baptiste said that he expected between 400 and 500 high schools of France’s roughly 3,700 to be partially or entirely closed on Monday, while thousands of adults are expected to join marches of support for the demonstrating schoolchildren on Tuesday.

The demonstrators’ stated aims are to increase funding for and staffing in schools across France, with those on the streets arguing that at present, critical lesson time is being lost due to schools being short-staffed, and that school buildings and resources leave children forced to attend classes in environments which are at best not conducive to learning and at worst dangerous.

Accusations of violence have been made by the children and their families, too, with one child having his hand blown off on Monday, reportedly by a police grenade thrown at protesters, and another reportedly losing sight in his right eye after being shot with a rubber bullet fired from a police weapon.

France’s human rights league has accused the police of a “global deviation from the rule of law” and a “disregard for legal frameworks” in its response to the protests, echoing the sentiments expressed by Smith when he took to the streets last week.

Lecornu said protests are ‘irresponsible’

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sebastian Lecornu has described the protests as “irresponsible”, and accused left-wing political party La France Insoumise – the party to which Smith belongs – of having fanned the flames which led to the violence seen in recent days.

“This is no longer about high school student protests. It is about riots organised by professionals and overseen by officials from La France Insoumise,” he said, before calling for a new anti-rioting law to be passed.

France is a semi-presidential republic. While it is the country’s parliament and not its president which forms the government, the president can dissolve parliament, and this has happened six times during the current fifth republic, most recently in 2024.

The country’s next parliamentary election is as such not due to take place until 2029, but its next presidential election will take place in April. In that election, Marechal has endorsed her aunt, Marine Le Pen.