“Are we about to have a civil war in Europe?”

Hundreds of burned cars, clashes with the police, looting
of public transport or destruction of schools: the images
of the French neighbourhoods in the last two weeks are
those of a rebellion feared for a long time, of a fevered
feeling translated into hostilities and profound
antagonism.
The current fires in the French neighbourhoods are not
surprising for similar events have already taken place in
other European countries. What has been different is the
intensity. Since the 70s, a series of mistakes, illusions
and vile acts motivated the emergence of a real internal
enemy and the formation of “lost territories of the
Republic” which have their own counterparts in almost
every European nation. Zones where French laws and values
have been substituted for other laws and values; foreign
territories where power is in the hands of the “big
brothers”, gang leaders and imams, whereas the police, the
fire-fighters and even teachers are being looked down on
by a rejected en block system.
The discovery of an incendiary arms factory in Évry and
the circulation of weapons of war in the cities shows that
an armed uprising is possible. France, on the other hand,
with more than 9,000 police cars hit by stones in the
first ten months of the year, has begun to experience a
law intensity conflict, a widely silenced national
uprising.
From now on, the time for confrontation has arrived for
many European countries as well as for France. The
champions of prevention had their chance. Are we, by any
chance, just ahead of a civil war in Europe? This
continent will soon deal with a conflict that will
transform it and whose first signs are already visible. It
will be a different war, subversive and symbolic, declared
and decentralized, intermittent and intense, where chaos
and fundamentalism will join to fight normality. A
community and generational intifada, a series of specific
and epidermal clashes inserted in a whole set of
identities and with enough time between each to make
people have doubts about the next occurrence. A contest
which democracies will have to deal with to preserve the
control of their territories, the stability of society,
legality of markets and the freedom of peoples’ minds.
This is a lethal challenge.