# Why Tom Slater sees anti-French sentiment as a shared thread

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/why-tom-slater-sees-anti-french-sentiment-as-a-shared-thread/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Tom Slater](https://realalpha.app/people/tom-slater/) · Editor, Spiked · Edits spiked and co-hosts its Last Orders podcast, covering politics, culture and free speech.
- Host: [Konstantin Kisin](https://realalpha.app/people/konstantin-kisin/)
- Host: [Francis Foster](https://realalpha.app/people/francis-foster/)
- Show: TRIGGERnometry
- Episode: [France Riots - Are We Next? - Off The Fence](https://realalpha.app/v/7FbRRPIEXVA/), Oct 23, 2026
- Moment: 20:35 to 23:29 of the episode (3 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/why-tom-slater-sees-anti-french-sentiment-as-a-shared-thread/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/7FbRRPIEXVA/?t=1235

## Quote

> “whether you're talking about the hard leftists whether you're talking about the islamist or the unintegrated migrants one thing that is clearly shared is **a lack of affection for france**”
> — [Tom Slater](https://realalpha.app/people/tom-slater/) at [20:44](https://realalpha.app/v/7FbRRPIEXVA/?t=1244) · TRIGGERnometry

## Takeaways

1. He says the groups have different reasons for joining the unrest.
2. He argues they share a rejection of France and its symbols.
3. He points to failed integration and a shift from class to identity politics.

## About this segment

Tom Slater argues that groups involved in the unrest differ but share a lack of connection to France. He links that outlook to failed integration, schools and the left's shift toward identity politics.

From “France Riots - Are We Next? - Off The Fence”, Oct 23, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/7FbRRPIEXVA/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[20:40](https://realalpha.app/v/7FbRRPIEXVA/?t=1240) there is that the only thing i would add to that is that there's clearly a thread which connects at least a chunk of those groups so when you whether you're talking about the students whether you're talking about the hard leftists whether you're talking about the islamist or the unintegrated migrants one thing that is clearly shared is a lack of affection for france is a lack of connection to france is uh no sense in which it is something horrific to desecrate some of its great um symbols and beautiful accomplishments whether it's architectural what have you and they've ended up in that position for slightly different reasons you know the propagandizing to the youth in the schools whether it's the absolute failure and breakdown of any project of integration let alone assimilation and of course on the left this

[21:23](https://realalpha.app/v/7FbRRPIEXVA/?t=1283) kind of turn over the course of decades now away from class politics to identity politics away from like this kind of aspiration to universalism which used to chime quite well with the project of france to this project of sort of third worldism and we've already talked a bit about melanchon but he's a perfect example of this this is someone who after the charlie hebdo attack would be happy to go and give a barnstorming speech as he did to memorialize his friend charb who was murdered in that horrific attack um castigating the islamic zealots and saying that these are this is something which we must not put up with um he's even criticized the veil we even used to criticize the concept of islamophobia you fast forward to today and he is openly courting islamists he is openly courting these unsegregated these segregated sections of society my colleague

[22:10](https://realalpha.app/v/7FbRRPIEXVA/?t=1330) fraser myers at spike where it's great article kind of itemizing all of that even he himself who is um ethnic french but was born in morocco and was part of the people who kind of expelled you know in the midst of um decolonization has started referring to himself as a maghrebian which is not a song by Edith Piath it's um this idea that he's a man of the Maghreb um he's spoken as Winston has alluded to of this idea that French society is just a kind of creole it doesn't really exist and he's even indulged in a bit of what you could recall a sort of lame anti-white student union politics talking about how all of France is white and ugly and that the new France which is what we see burning everything down is actually where the future lies certainly for the left so again it's to go that's a bit of a tangent about the left and john luke melanchol but i say you

[22:55](https://realalpha.app/v/7FbRRPIEXVA/?t=1375) can you can see how much there is a as much this is inchoate yes there's economic factors social factors political ones people just joining in writing because it's they're young and it's fun which is something that we can never totally discredit as a motivating factor they share that hatred of rejection of france that that clip about they're concerned about the future of their nation a lot of them couldn't give a shit about the future of their nation they don't much like their nation they don't really know what they want as an alternative all the time but that's something I think you can say is sort of shared even if they've ended up in that position