In Saint-Denis, ten kilometers north of Paris, newborns with an Arabic or Muslim first name went from 15% in 1983 to 45% in 2016; they are 19% in all of France. The percentages come from the Arde París book. La nueva revolución francesa (Lengua de Trapo, 2023), by the Basque journalist Iñaki Gil. A text blessed by the god of opportunity, not opportunism, because it was published a few weeks before the whole of France again, in the most literal sense of the term, caught fire.
More data from the same volume: 61% of the French believe, according to a Harris Interactive study dated 2021, that the theory of the great replacement will materialize. In other words, they take it for granted that the whites of Christian tradition will be replaced by people from other non-European peoples who will destroy their culture. The latest work by Ipsos for Le Monde says it in another way: only 40% of the French consider Islam compatible with the values of society in the neighboring country. And only 45% consider that immigrants do something to integrate.
The riots in France in recent days have fueled the debate around these fundamental issues. Here too, given that immigration and its integration, or lack thereof, is and will continue to be one of the topics of conversation in this electoral cycle and those to come.
There are those who believe that this is so because the ultra-right wants it. Those who reason like this think a lot but walk little. If we talk about Spain, both Vox and Aliança Catalana are nothing more than the populist and demagogic articulation of a concern that has been intensely present in public discussions for more than a decade. You could even say that both parties have arrived late.
Among us, the analysis of what has happened tends to mostly blame French politics and institutions. République is held responsible for not fulfilling its founding contract of equality. Poverty, the lack of opportunities, the institutional abandonment of the ghettos... would be the cause – if not the justification – of the plague of juvenile delinquency and riots experienced in recent days in French cities.
The other view, more marginal in these places, is at the opposite pole. He accepts, without citing him, the thesis of the far-right Éric Zemmour. France is already in civil war. On the one hand, the true French, clinging to the values of republicanism. On the other, those who profess the Muslim culture and faith, bearers of values called to destroy the foundations of the nation that welcomed them decades ago or in the present.
I have seen Romain Gabras' film Atenea twice this week, on the recommendation of Pep Prieto, the RAC1 film critic. The film is a prophecy of what has happened. No children's lessons. It explains the existence of a France that lives outside the law and republican values. And it also certifies that the living conditions and future prospects in these no-go zones are more comparable to those of the third world than to what we would consider a European standard. The egg or the chicken? Or rather two hens?
Whatever the answer, what we already know is that this conflict between old and new Europeans will get worse. The UN set the number of immigrants that the Old Continent will need until 2050 to meet the needs of its labor market at sixty million in 2022. The positions that we Caucasians decided we no longer wanted to occupy must continue to be filled and others that will remain empty due to the demographic suicide that our current values and lifestyle are leading us to.
To this it must be added that administratively naturalized Europeans, but faithful to their culture and traditions of origin, are the ones who make up the birth statistics. The human landscape of what is already past will continue to change. And very, very fast.
So it is easy to warn that the pockets of marginalization, framed mostly under the influence of Islam, will continue to grow. And so will the conviction of the native Europeans that they and their customs are being replaced by others that are alien to them.
The fire lit up the stage for a few days. He does it periodically. But the work continues daily. No other solution can be guessed other than to ensure that the explosions of the volcano are minimal and the more controlled the better. And that may be the most we can aspire to. And not only in France.
