Zemmour Blames Arab-Muslim Immigration for Football Night Riots

French nationalist politician Éric Zemmour has launched a blistering attack on President Emmanuel Macron and France’s political establishment following the rioting in Paris after Paris Saint-Germain lifted the Champions League for the first time, blaming the unrest squarely on immigration and “a foreign civilization” hostile to France.

In a video posted on X on Monday, Zemmour recalled celebrating PSG’s win over Inter Milan on Saturday night with young activists from his Reconquête party. “We were in front of the television, shouting, singing, we’d won,” he said.

But the joy of the match was overshadowed, he claimed, by the riots that followed in the streets. “This violence has nothing to do with football,” Zemmour insisted. “Whether their teams win or lose, these pseudo-supporters react in the same way. They break, they pillage, they steal, they assault, they burn.”

He argued the culprits are not true fans but instead come from “the same neighborhoods, the same backgrounds, most of them children of Arab-Muslim immigration,” and that their actions are motivated by hatred of France. “Whether they were born here or there, whether they are French or foreign, they hate France and the French. The Whites… are their enemies,” he claimed.

Zemmour strongly condemned Macron for using the term “brother” when congratulating PSG, saying the president spoke “like the young scum from the suburbs” and implying he was identifying with the Islamic community. “We didn’t know that the president of the French Republic wanted to show his proud membership of the Islamic Ummah,” Zemmour said, adding that “in the Ummah, Muslims are brothers, the others are disbelievers.”

Zemmour dismissed attempts by center-right politicians to blame the violence on the erosion of French social structures since the 1968 revolution. “If Saturday night’s violence was the result of the deconstruction of French society, it would be a good thing,” he said sarcastically. “So, why don’t the crowds at the Tour de France smash everything in their path?”

Instead, he likened the rioters to the barbaresques of the 17th century — pirates from North Africa who raided the French coast. “At least in those days, they went back to their lairs once their deed was done,” he said, before accusing French elites of having, over 40 years, “brought in millions of representatives of a foreign civilization who have accumulated centuries of conflict with France and the West.”

Calling for what he termed a “radical change of policy,” Zemmour reiterated proposals from his 2022 presidential campaign. These included cutting welfare to families of rioters, restoring prison as a central instrument of justice, and revoking French nationality from dual nationals involved in criminal acts in order to deport them. “Yes, we need the remigration policy I proposed,” he added, noting that even the United States was “in the process of implementing it.”

Zemmour closed his message by urging an end to what he called France’s habitual hand-wringing after each eruption of violence. “Let’s stop lamenting every night of rioting. Let’s open our eyes to the diagnosis and adopt this radical treatment. Hope lies in action.”

Two people were killed amid the chaos in the French capital on Saturday night, scenes which continued the following evening. According to France’s interior ministry, 192 people were injured and 559 people were arrested across the country, including 491 in Paris.

In addition, 22 police officers and seven firefighters were injured, while 264 vehicles were set on fire.