France is in turmoil, and Bernard-Henri Lévy watches with anguish as his country sinks into nihilism

Nothing has broken Bernard-Henri Lévy’s heart more in this month of moral collapse than the fire on 17 October at Limoges Town Hall. “For French people who do not believe in heaven, the fire in Limoges is a sort of secular counterpart to the fire at Notre-Dame in Paris,” Lévy tells the Wall Street Journal, referring to the destruction of much of the famous cathedral seven years ago. “When the dome of Limoges Town Hall went up in flames and collapsed, it was not just a roof that came crashing down. A little of France’s soul was burning before our very eyes. One of the Republic’s cathedrals was turning to ash and smoke.” “You get the feeling we’re on the brink of a civil war,” he says. “The worst thing is that the country’s two main political forces now have a stake in the unrest: Le Pen because she would seize power, Mélenchon because he would take control of the streets. This domestic Yalta is the nightmare of all moderates, whether conservative or liberal.” Given the collapse of the French political centre, it is possible that these two extremes will face off in next May’s presidential election, after the rest of a crowded field has been eliminated in the first round in April. Lévy is both a staunch liberal and a fierce defender of Western Judeo-Christian values. He regards Le Pen and Mélenchon with equal distaste. “They are a right-wing and a left-wing version of the same populism — a right-wing Trumpism, if you like, and a sort of left-wing Trumpism; both share the same fundamental tendencies.” These tendencies include: “Indulgence towards Putin, betrayal of Zelensky, nationalist and isolationist retreat, and a refusal to take further steps towards Europe. Furthermore, an economic policy that will leave France amongst the nations heading for bankruptcy”.

It is a fight to the death, he says, over “which of them will have the terrible privilege of ruining this country”. The threat “is no longer even a political danger”, he adds. “It is metapolitical. It is the destruction of the social bond itself”. To prevent this, he says, we must “stop the arsonists on both sides from afar: those who set people’s souls alight, the arsonists of the mind”. Lévy has been highly critical of Macron for his “unilateral recognition of the State of Palestine, which hands a political victory to Hamas and rewards the worst kind of terrorism”. But there is “at least one area in which Macron has been impeccable: his support for Ukraine. Even today, when the United States seems to be siding with Russia, thank goodness there is Macron to keep alive the bond that unites Ukraine with its European home. For this, at least, he should be praised”. Lévy was not initially hostile to the French protests. “The student movement was obviously sympathetic at the start,” he says. “Their demands – more teachers, better conditions in our secondary schools – were entirely worthy of sympathy. But the whole thing was completely hijacked by Mélenchon’s far left”, which ran “the enormous risk of calling for violence, legitimising it and casting a sort of political curse on the Republican police force”. Don’t expect him to stay in France: “My country seems to be at the forefront of a phenomenon that is now spreading throughout Europe, and perhaps across the whole of the West: an explosion of nihilism.” This is not 1968. “When the students of that era looked beyond France’s borders, it was not to parrot, like donkeys, ‘Gaza, Gaza, Gaza’, but to protest against all the dictatorships that were then raging across the world.”

The ubiquity of anti-Israeli symbols in the riots shocks Lévy. “Palestinian flags – it’s terrible, but it’s true. Just as in New York, where ‘Globalise the intifada’ has become a rallying cry for a new generation of so-called progressives, the Palestinian flag is becoming a shibboleth for the most mindless of our rioters. This is where we find ourselves: in a sad rehash of past international commitments and, in effect, in the eruption of genuine left-wing anti-Semitism.” Do Jews have a future in France? It has been credibly reported that Jewish-owned businesses have been particularly targeted in the recent French riots. “This is one of the main themes of my book,” he replies. “Jews have played an important role in making France what it is. If anyone has to leave, it is not the Jews, but the anti-Semites. I will defend this argument and fight for it with all my might, until my last breath.”