Talk of a civil war in France is overblown – for now
From our UK edition
Is France at war? Alain Finkielkraut, one of the most popular and respected – if controversial – intellectuals in France, appears to think so. Finkielkraut recently made further enemies by joining a growing set of French intellectuals, writers and politicians who say that France is in the midst of a desperate battle. To Finkielkraut, the rioting and looting that ripped across France earlier this summer was part of an ongoing conflict between two groups: those who respect Republican values and those who hate the French Republic. What Finkielkraut fears above all is that the French Republic might buckle under the strain of this fight. What has been happening in France, he said in an interview in the latest issue of Causeur, ‘is the inexorable ‘Lebanonisation’ of France.
