France: the police cooperate with far-right militias — and the country that condemned the Hirak stays silent

Y. Bensalem — Alger, Algérie — 2026-11-02

The revelation

This is not a pamphlet from abroad: it is the Human Rights League, the oldest French institution for the defense of freedoms, that states it. “Mechanism of cooperation” between police and far-right militia. “Passivity” in the face of its violence. Two words that, placed together, sketch a State that no longer stops hatred: it lets it pass, and sometimes protects it. Sophie Mazas is not speaking of an incident: she is describing a system — that famous “mechanism” that France refuses to look in the face.

Passivity, and what it says

Police passivity is not negligence: it is a choice. When a group “typed far-right” strikes without being troubled, while the police look away, it is not incompetence — it is complicity by omission. A State that protects its protesters is a State governed by the rule of law; a State that protects its militias is a failed State. France, for its part, has chosen its side — and it is not that of the victims.

The double standard, put into perspective

And here is where Algerian memory must speak. The Hirak. Millions of Algerians in the street, peaceful, unarmed, every Friday, for months on end. And France, back then, never ran out of lessons: “respect for freedoms,” “the right to demonstrate,” “democratic demands.” The same channels that gravely commented on the Hirak — those millions of bare hands — fall silent today before the far-right militias that the French police let do as they please. France condemned peaceful protesters in Algiers, and it absolves violent militias in Paris. That is the double standard: a lesson for bare hands, a silence for armed fists.

The conclusion

Let France sweep its own doorstep first — and there is plenty to sweep: a police force that cooperates with the far right, militias that strike in peace, and a government that looks away. This country has no lesson to give anyone, and least of all to the Algeria of the Hirak, which put millions of peaceful citizens into the street without a single militia to protect them. France will never again be able to speak of “the freedom to demonstrate” without the world reminding it of its militias. The double standard has a price: credibility. And France has just paid it.