The riots in France are a very serous matter for us all. They are not just some minor, routine, explosive geyser – part of a long-standing French tradition of street protest. Nor are the rioters protesting in sympathy with teenagers venting anger at underinvestment in their lycees.

Some violent, destructive rioters appear to have been co-ordinated by extremists on the far left, who saw mass demonstrations organised by more moderate leftists as an opportunity to further radicalise French politics. All these events serve to deliver French political debate into the hands of the left and right fringes of political opinion – at the expense of centrist politics.

Many millions of decent French men and women look on with dismay at the riots and the kind of political instability they are carefully designed to create. The same applies in Italy in relation to the smaller-scale copycat rioting in Milan. French president Emmanuel Macron’s televised national address in response looked and sounded weak.

Leftist street politics are not a legitimate response to the economic problems facing France, which are chronic and accelerating. Of course, people in democracies have a right to peaceful protest. These are rights that do not exist in the totalitarian states led by despots of the kind that the shameful president Donald Trump claims such warm personal relations with, and mutual respectful admiration for.

Can an everyday Methodist pastor create a political miracle in Kansas?

‘Absolutely chaotic’: Passengers frustrated by........

© The Irish Times