A protester holds a banner reading: " Stop of state of emergency" during a protest in Paris on 30 Jan 2016. Christophe Ena / AP/Press Association Images. All rights reserved.French Prime Minister Manuel Valls recently called for France’s state of emergency to remain in place until ISIS has been eliminated. This is in addition to President Hollande’s push to amend the French constitution while making some of the currently expanded police powers permanent. Most controversially, Hollande is proposing a measure that would allow the government to strip certain natural-born French citizens of their citizenship should they be convicted of terrorist-related activities.
The present state of emergency is due to expire at the end of February; a war to fully eradicate ISIS is likely to take years. Since the 13 November attacks in Paris, security forces have conducted thousands of raids in immigrant communities across France and placed hundreds under house arrest. Despite government claims to the contrary, there is little evidence that these additional police powers have made a substantial difference. Meanwhile, human rights groups have documented massive abuses (see here, here, and here), while thousands are marching to demand the end of these draconian policies.
That such policies of exception will erode the democratic life of society is not a risk—it is inevitable. The idea of a “state of emergency” is predicated on a model of political militarisation ill-suited to the needs of Western democratic society in the twenty-first century. Such blanket curtailments of basic rights will endanger the democratic integration of residents and citizens of Muslim background at a time when such efforts at integration are as essential as they are fragile.
