The state of emergency in France from 2015-2017
No to police-state rule after the terrorist killing of French teacher Samuel Paty!
By Alex Lantier, 22 October 2020
The bankruptcy of communal terrorism is once more exposed. The state uses such atrocities as opportunities to whip up support for authoritarianism and nationalism.
French state of emergency expires in name, but police state remains
By Alex Lantier and Kumaran Ira, 4 November 2017
The expiration of France’s two-year state of emergency does not signify a return to conditions before 2015, but stepped-up attacks on democratic rights.
Opposition grows to writing French state of emergency into law
By Francis Dubois, 21 July 2017
As sections of the political establishment grow increasingly wary of the danger to democratic rights posed by Macron's policies, social opposition is emerging in the working class.
With permanent state of emergency, Macron plans authoritarian rule in France
By Kumaran Ira, 9 June 2017
Press reports yesterday confirmed that the government of newly-elected President Emmanuel Macron intends to pass a law making the state of emergency permanent.
After Manchester attack, France prolongs state of emergency
By Francis Dubois, 25 May 2017
A week after taking office, French President Emmanuel Macron’s government announced that it would prolong the country’s state of emergency to November and seek a law to make it permanent.
New French Prime Minister Cazeneuve prolongs state of emergency
By Alex Lantier, 15 December 2016
Basic democratic rights will continue to be suspended in France until July 2017, after next year’s presidential elections in May 2017.
French prime minister calls for extension of state of emergency
By Alex Lantier, 14 November 2016
Coming just after Donald Trump’s election as US president, the announcement points to the accelerating collapse of democratic forms of rule on both sides of the Atlantic.
France’s permanent state of emergency
By Alex Lantier, 21 July 2016
Amid a deep crisis of bourgeois democracy and seething social tensions across Europe, the ruling elite aims to transition from democratic to dictatorial forms of rule.
Amid protests, French government uses emergency powers to impose draft labor law
By Alex Lantier, 6 July 2016
The use of the constitution’s Article 49-3 to impose a redraft of the law without a vote in the National Assembly testifies to the Socialist Party’s contempt for democracy.
French parliament extends state of emergency amid rising protests
By Alex Lantier, 20 May 2016
Contrary to official claims, the state of emergency is not aimed at Islamist terrorism, but at growing opposition in the working class to social austerity and military and police violence.
French workers, youth defy state of emergency to protest austerity policies
By Anthony Torres, 1 April 2016
As many as 1.2 million people participated in demonstrations Thursday across France against the draconian anti-working class policies of the Socialist Party government.
French students speak out against austerity and state of emergency
By Kumaran Ira and Anthony Torres, 25 March 2016
Students protesting the French labour reform expressed their opposition to the Socialist Party’s austerity measures, state of emergency and imperialist wars.
Paris terror attack suspect Salah Abdeslam arrested in Brussels
By Alex Lantier, 21 March 2016
Astonishingly, Europe’s most wanted man, on the run from police for four months, was hiding near his parents’ apartment in the heavily-watched Molenbeek district.
Striking cashiers and dockers interrogated under French state of emergency
By Anthony Torres, 10 March 2016
The unprecedented attack on the right to strike is yet another warning of the anti-working class character of the state of emergency imposed by the Socialist Party.
Public split in French Socialist Party over state of emergency
By Alex Lantier, 29 February 2016
Critics inside the PS are concerned that its policies of deep austerity and appeals to neo-fascist sentiment leave it dangerously exposed to attack from the left.
French National Assembly enshrines state of emergency in constitution
By Kumaran Ira, 17 February 2016
French police have conducted more than 3,200 warrantless house searches, imposed 400 house arrest orders, and closed numerous mosques and businesses.
Human Rights Watch report exposes French state of emergency
By Stéphane Hugues, 9 February 2016
The report points to systematic, arbitrary denials of basic democratic rights by police and the targeting of people of Muslim descent.
Prime Minister Valls pledges permanent state of emergency in France
By Stéphane Hugues and Alex Lantier, 26 January 2016
As if in a slow-motion military coup, the ruling elite is moving to transform political life in France, creating an authoritarian political regime.
Amid state of emergency, French workers jailed for struggle to defend jobs
By Kumaran Ira, 14 January 2016
With the unprecedented decision to jail Goodyear workers who struck against mass layoffs, the state is showing that its emergency powers are aimed squarely at the working class.
One year after Charlie Hebdo attack
Police gun down youth in poor Paris neighborhood
By Stéphane Hugues, 8 January 2016
Witnesses speaking to the media flatly contradicted official accounts of the shooting and said that police gunned down an unarmed man without warning.
French government considers deprivation of nationality as possible sentence to all citizens
By Alex Lantier, 6 January 2016
The Socialist Party is increasingly taking up positions associated with the extreme right and the traditions of 20th century European fascism.
After Paris attacks, anti-Muslim riot erupts in Corsica
By Kumaran Ira, 30 December 2015
The anti-Muslim riots in Corsica are the product of the incitement of racial hatreds by the entire French political establishment.
French government proposes constitutional amendment on state of emergency, deprivation of citizenship
By Alex Lantier, 24 December 2015
Proposed moves to deprive people of French nationality were traditionally associated to the far-right National Front and were used against the Jews during the Nazi Occupation.
Mass police raids in French state of emergency find no terror networks
By Anthony Torres, 23 December 2015
Mass searches and house arrests are part of the preparation for the imposition of a permanent state of emergency by the Socialist Party government.
Amid French state of emergency, Sodexo sacks 19 workers for striking
By Kumaran Ira, 23 December 2015
The sudden and unprecedented mass sacking by food and facilities management multinational Sodexo is an attack on the constitutionally protected right to strike.
Weapon used in November 13 Paris attacks came from CIA-linked arms dealer
By Alex Lantier, 18 December 2015
Investigations of the November 13 attacks raise the question of whether elements in or around the state machine facilitated the commission of the terror attacks in Paris.
After Paris attacks, New Anti-capitalist Party backs police state rule and war
By Alex Lantier, 11 December 2015
The NPA is not denouncing war or the threat of police dictatorship in France, but insinuating that opposition to imperialist war is support for terrorism.
Imperialism, the “war on terror” and anti-Muslim hysteria
By Andre Damon, 9 December 2015
The call by Donald Trump that Muslims be prevented from traveling to the United States exemplifies the reactionary politics that go hand-in-hand with the drive to war.
After Paris attacks, neo-fascists surge in polls for French regional elections
By Kumaran Ira, 2 December 2015
The neo-fascist National Front has emerged as the main beneficiary of the law-and-order hysteria and draconian police-state measures of the Socialist Party.
The police crackdown in Paris and the drift towards dictatorship in France
By Alex Lantier, 30 November 2015
Yesterday, police seized upon the standing ban on all public protests during the state of emergency to stage a brutal crackdown on ecological protesters in Paris.
New data on police foreknowledge of terrorists raise questions on Paris attack
By Kumaran Ira, 27 November 2015
While the state is giving massive new powers to police supposedly to stop terrorism, intelligence agencies could have stopped the attacks with their existing powers.
September 11 and the Paris terrorist attacks
By Peter Schwarz, 25 November 2015
The real reason for the explosion of US militarism after 9/11 was the crisis of US imperialism on a global scale and growing class tensions within the US itself. The same applies to the response to the Paris attacks.
After Paris attacks, Spain offers to reinforce French troops in Africa
By James Lerner and Alejandro López, 24 November 2015
Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy has offered to replace French troops deployed in missions in Africa so Paris can free up more forces for the fight against Islamic State (IS), both in France itself and in Syria and Iraq.
Employers push to use French state of emergency against workers
By Stéphane Hugues and Alex Lantier, 21 November 2015
As the government imposes a state of emergency, the employers federation is calling on businesses to report any suspect remark by workers to the police.
French National Assembly overwhelmingly backs extension of police-state measures
By Andre Damon, 20 November 2015
The lower house of the French Parliament voted 551-6 to extend the state of emergency that lets police carry out warrant-less searches and break up meetings and demonstrations.
The state of emergency and the collapse of French democracy
By Alex Lantier, 19 November 2015
Hollande’s proposed amendments to the French Constitution provide the legal basis for transforming France into a presidential dictatorship.
Paris suburb of Saint Denis under military lockdown as gun battle plays out
By Stéphane Hugues, 19 November 2015
Residents in the center of Saint Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, were woken up at 4:30 a.m. in the morning by an enormous explosion and heavy gunfire.
French government’s bill on state of emergency threatens democratic rights
By Anthony Torres, 19 November 2015
The modification of the French Constitution paves the way for security forces to ban strikes, demonstrations or any public meetings that displease the authorities.
After Paris attacks, NATO powers press for military escalation in Syria
By Alex Lantier, 18 November 2015
The international coalition the French government claims it is trying to assemble with Russia and the US against the Islamic State militia is riven with contradictions.
French president exploits terror attacks to suspend democratic rights
By Alex Lantier and Stéphane Hugues, 17 November 2015
Hollande’s announcements make clear that he intends to modify the French constitution to give the government the power to impose an indefinite state of emergency.
After the Paris terror attacks: A drumbeat for military escalation and internal repression
By Bill Van Auken, 17 November 2015
Terrorism, from the standpoint of the American state, is a useful tactic when directed against Washington’s enemies. It is merely part of the cost of doing business when it hits the US and its allies.
German media brays for war and dictatorship after Paris attacks
By Johannes Stern, 17 November 2015
Right-wing circles in German politics and the media are exploiting the shock over the attacks in Paris to make increasingly explicit appeals for authoritarianism and militarism.
Citing Paris attacks, Jeremy Corbyn retreats from critique of UK foreign policy
By Chris Marsden, 17 November 2015
Corbyn, the leader of the Labour Party, cancelled plans to make a speech defending his previously stated opposition to British escalation in Syria.
The Paris terror attacks
By Alex Lantier and Barry Grey, 16 November 2015
The criminal assault on innocent civilians in Paris is the predictable outcome of US and European imperialism’s relentless escalation of military operations in the Middle East.
After Paris attacks, French government steps up police state measures
By Kumaran Ira, 16 November 2015
The Socialist Party government plans to extend the current state of emergency for three months or possibly indefinitely.
UK mounts massive police operation after Paris terror attacks
By Robert Stevens, 16 November 2015
The Paris attacks resulted in calls from the media and sections of the military for Britain to take a central part in military strikes in Syria.
France declares state of emergency after ISIS terrorist attacks kill over 100 in Paris
By Alex Lantier, 14 November 2015
More than 14 years of the “War on Terror” have created a climate of escalating violence of which the atrocity in Paris is a tragic example.
Follow the WSWS