Just three months after retiring from his position as the head of the Paris police department, Didier Lallement is warning that France is headed for a societal breakdown that will one day require French troops to guard the Élysée Palace, the residence of the president of the Republic.
The controversial Lallement details a “dark vision of society,” in a new book entitled “The Necessary Order,” which presents a France “eaten away by individualism, conspiracy, Islamism, and survivalism,” along with what he referred to as “the Uber-ization of the drug market.”
However, according to French media outlet Valeurs Actuelles, one area that Lallement’s book has a particular focus on is the topic of illegal immigration. The former Paris police chief writes that “one out of every two crimes is committed by a foreigner, who are often in the country illegally… It is clear that some of the newcomers are integrating through delinquency.”
Lallement’s claim that half of all crimes are committed by foreigners in France, despite them only making up approximately 22 percent of the population, is supported by recent data from the French interior ministry.
Lallement also writes that the problem with migrants and illegal immigration played a major role in the riots and assaults at the Stade de France, which served as one of France’s biggest scandals in recent times. The incident saw large groups of migrants attacking and robbing English and Spanish football fans earlier this year, sparking international outrage and sharp criticism towards French President Emmanuel Macron.
Lallement blames himself for the incident, and stated that he could not have imagined that “migrants would come to loot at the gates of the stadium.”
“I fully assume the failure of this evening,” he writes. He also writes that he would have resigned immediately due to the incident if Macron had not asked him to wait. However, Lallement writes in his book that the riots and assaults at the Stade de France, along with the general breakdown down in security, are only foreshadowing much larger social upheavals to come.
“The social convulsions will be intense and destructive… One day, it will be necessary to mass troops in front of the Élysée,” he writes.
Lallement is best known for his brutal crackdown on the country’s Yellow Vest movement, which resulted in a number of protestors being severely injured. Now, in television interviews, he has shed his uniform, clipped manner of speaking, and what Paris Match referred to as his “icy mask.” Instead, he now sports jeans, a hipster beard, a “philosophical look,” and a gentle demeanor.
Lallement reiterates that he does not accept the term “police violence,” despite fierce opposition from human rights groups. He said that the violence is rife in Paris, including with firearms, threats against elected officials, and police being attacked during protests; all of this results in the police sometimes responding with force. He said there are some “black sheep” in the department and incidents of racism, but they are the great exception.
The former police chief is not the only former top official warning of a breakdown in society and possible conflict, with a large number of former top generals writing an open letter warning of civil war in France in the coming years. The country’s former top intelligence director for the DGSE , Pierre Brochand, also said earlier this year that the country could face a civil war due to mass immigration,
“All my accumulated experiences make me foresee a dark, and even very dark, future for our children and grandchildren,” he warned.
France has the largest Muslim population in Europe, and poor integration and criminal violence from the country’s immigrant community has led to a deterioration in the country’s security and social cohesion. A majority of Frenchpeople wish for a slowdown of or even a complete halt to immigration, but France’s political establishment has shown little interest in complying with their wishes despite paying lip service to the issue. Nevertheless, top opposition politicians, mainstream politicians, and academics have long warned that the ethnic French face a bleak future unless they can reverse demographic trends and restrict immigration.