Far-left French mayor says 'violence can be legitimate' as schools burn
'Violence can be legitimate, but whenever you can avoid it, that is better,' said Saint-Denis Mayor Bally Bagayoko, a member of La France Insoumise, to rioting students.
On Thursday's episode of The Ezra Levant Show, Ezra showcased something that most mainstream Canadian outlets have shied away from: Across the Atlantic, France is on fire.
At Lycée Léonard de Vinci, a high school in Roubaix, the front door burned while teenagers filmed on their phones. In Nantes, the entrance hall of Lycée Nelson-Mandela was gutted. In Lille, masked men in black kicked a chemistry teacher in the back and chased him down the street. In Marseille, Reuters reported, the principal of Victor Hugo high school was doused in petrol.
On Wednesday, Sept. 30, alone, 356 high schools were blockaded. Police made 625 arrests, about two-thirds of them minors. Eighty-three police officers and gendarmes were hurt, along with 119 students and staff. Île-de-France put school damage near €1 million, including more than €100,000 at Lycée Paul-Éluard in Saint-Denis.
There are real grievances about schools in the region. In the Créteil school district, classes have 32 to 35 students, and teachers go missing. But overcrowded classrooms do not explain masked operators moving from school to school. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez described troublemakers travelling between campuses to incite violence. And yet Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the far-left La France Insoumise party, called the students "harmless."`
The unmasked face of the week was Bally Bagayoko, 53, mayor of Saint-Denis, elected in March with 50.77 percent for La France Insoumise. He showed up at the gate of the blockaded Lycée Paul-Éluard beside a burning dumpster, laughing and handing out high-fives as teenagers cheered. Since then, he has denied lighting anything and calls the viral framing "fake news."
What he said on camera the next day is not in dispute, and prosecutors are now investigating it: "Violence can be legitimate, but whenever you can avoid it, that is better." He called the students children with a right to make mistakes, then told a reporter, "If I slap you, you're going to react."
The same day, students surrounded a BFMTV crew, roughed up two journalists and forced the crew out under escort. A girl on camera called BFM a "racist" outlet. The mayor posted three words: "Elle a raison !" She's right.
Paris police prefect Patrice Faure referred Bagayoko to prosecutors under Article 40 for incitement to commit a crime. Emmanuel Macron said no politician may legitimize violence. Nuñez said violence is never legitimate. Valérie Pécresse said she would send Paul-Éluard's repair bill to the mayor's city.
But Mélenchon accused police of "ferocity" with an "obvious racist aftertaste." Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu called that an insult.
The public is not fooled. A CSA poll found 55 percent of French voters say La France Insoumise is manipulating the blockades. With the presidential election in April and May 2027, Marine Le Pen leads first-round polls at 31 to 36 percent, Mélenchon trails at 14 to 20, and a runoff between them goes to Le Pen 70 to 30. A week of school fires, with a mayor at the gate, is the campaign.
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