As France reels from its worst riots in years, Americans heading to the polls next week might be taking a hard look at what’s happening across the Atlantic. What began as student protests over school conditions has turned into burned city halls, looted storefronts, and a government struggling to pay its bills, and some say it’s a lesson for the US.
“We will end up like France if our immigration policies continue and if the liberal [economic] policies continue. France has chosen to let these people in,” Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., told Just the News.
Fine continued, “The French problem is not an illegal immigration problem; it is a legal immigration problem coupled with the radical views of people like AOC and [Abdul] Mohammed El-Sayed, we’ve got to stop it.”
Warnings sounding off
The French riots have prompted warnings about the immigration stances of high-profile Democratic socialists ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Speaking to Fox Digital, Santiago Vidal Calvo, a researcher at the Manhattan Institute, singled out New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, arguing that their approaches to immigration enforcement could move the United States closer to conditions he associates with France’s crisis.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., said on X that “France is descending into chaos because they wanted OPEN BORDERS — just like the socialist Democrats in America. What we are witnessing is a chilling warning for all Americans of what happens if the radical Marxist insurgent left gets their way. America is not merely in a battle of political ideologies — it’s a battle for the preservation of our civilization, our freedoms, and our way of life.”
If the most progressive wing of the Democratic Party gains real power in November, the argument goes, the U.S. could start down the same road. Here’s how France got there:
Protests over schools transformed in riots by extreme left, pro-Palestinian agitators
The unrest reportedly began with students protesting conditions in France’s education system before labor unions, political activists and groups with separate grievances joined the movement.
On Oct. 17, some 550,000 protesters took to the streets, according to CNN, and largely peaceful marches descended into rioting that left government buildings torched and one police officer and one protester dead. 1,200 people were arrested and 150 police were hurt.
Who did the damage is disputed. President Emmanuel Macron blamed insurrectionist elements from radical far-left groups, joined by numerous criminals. A French security source described the alliance between the ultra-left, the radical far left and young people from disadvantaged neighborhoods as unprecedented.
Many of those neighborhoods have large immigrant-descended populations. That fact is the basis for arguments from President Trump, who blamed immigrants “from an entirely different world,” and Vice President J.D. Vance. French commentator Éric Zemmour pinned much of the looting on suburban youths of African and North African origin.
Jewish news and commentary outlet The Algemeiner published a column on Monday saying that “It is not a coincidence that the protests turned quickly to violence – a vast international network of pro-Palestinian organizations, including those linked to terrorist organizations, fueled the initial unrest in France on Oct. 17. Urgence Palestine, an organization established in the wake of Oct. 7, was proudly at the protests carrying Palestinian flags, while a branch of the Association France Palestine Solidarité announced its support for the protests, highlighting the signs associated with the pro-Palestinian movement.”
Social media and some news outlets have widely shared videos of the purported students rioting while waving and wearing Palestinian flags.
A week later, some 70,000 officers were deployed and at least 400,000 people protested, largely peacefully.
Fiscal crisis another aggravating factor
The riots are erupting on top of a debt problem years in the making. At the end of June, France’s public debt stood at 3.596 trillion euros ($4.08 trillion), equivalent to 119% of GDP. The eurozone average is 88.9%. France expects a deficit of 5.4% of GDP in 2026 and targets 5% in 2027.
Moody’s doubts even that, projecting the deficit will only fall to 5.2% due to weaker growth and the political difficulty of real spending cuts. Fortune cited Moody’s report saying “The 2027 budget process coincides with some of the most extensive social protests France has experienced in many years.”
Markets have noticed. Reuters reported that Moody’s spared France a credit rating downgrade on Friday, easing pressure on a government struggling to contain social unrest and shore up its strained finances. Bond yields have hit their highest levels in 24 years, and French borrowing costs already exceed those of lower-rated Italy. Moody’s held France’s Aa3 rating on October 23 but kept a negative outlook, and warned the unrest could constrain efforts to cut the deficit.
An Aa3 rating from Moody’s is the fourth-highest long-term credit rating on the agency’s 21-grade scale. It falls within the top tier known as “Investment Grade.”
The discomfort in the situation is that protesters are demanding more public spending from a state that can’t afford what it already spends. Mike Bell, head of market strategy at RBC BlueBay, warned that all three major agencies could slash France’s bonds to a BBB rating, just above junk, after next year’s presidential vote.
Amanda Head is White House Correspondent for Just the News. You can follow her here.
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