by Peter Zeihan on June 30, 2023

Riots have broken out in France after police killed a 17-year-old kid. When a similar situation occurred in ’05, there were weeks of riots. We can’t be sure if the same will happen here, but it’s worth looking into based on France’s unique demographic situation.

The US is no stranger to issues of race, but there are constant conversations on the topic, and members of most minorities are represented throughout all levels of government. The French haven’t quite figured that out yet.

France deemed their ethnic conflict so extreme they had to redefine what “being French” meant. So whether you were Catalan, Basque, from Paris or Marseille…you were now just French. This made tracking and collecting ethnic data illegal and unconstitutional. So France doesn’t even know how big their racial problem is…

They’ve essentially institutionalized racism and created massive divides between urban centers and marginalized areas where these “2nd class citizens” live. Lacking a proper understanding of the situation has made allocating resources outside of law enforcement a non-starter, further dividing the groups and adding tension to an already unstable situation.

Despite this vulnerability, I remain optimistic about France’s future. Given its self-reliant economic system and strong demographic picture, they should be just fine…they’ll have to sort this other stuff out ASAP though.

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