Facing the Mirror: Macron’s Post-Democratic France
Political philosopher Colin Crouch once warned that “A democracy without the people is no democracy at all.”
When France’s national asylum court (CNDA) ruled on 11 July 2025 that all residents of Gaza were eligible for full refugee status[1], the move was lauded by human rights organisations — and met with astonishment by large parts of the French public. President Emmanuel Macron has not spoken publicly about the decision, but his earlier support for Palestinian statehood[2] and criticism of Israeli operations suggest tacit approval. Yet this policy, framed as a humanitarian gesture, comes with heavy consequences.
France now finds itself in precisely such a democratic crisis: one driven by courts, not citizens. The CNDA’s rationale, citing systematic persecution by the Israeli Defence Forces, may resonate morally, but there has been no parliamentary debate, no vote, no referendum. This is not democratic consensus — it is technocratic decree.
Recent polls reveal the disconnect. In March 2024, 69% of French respondents said there were too many immigrants in France; 74% favoured reducing asylum intake regardless of origin[3]. These views cut across the political spectrum, including secularists, Catholics, social democrats, and liberals, citing overload, insecurity, and failed integration, particularly in suburban banlieues.
Domestic Discontent and Economic Strain
The decision has drawn political backlash from Rassemblement National, Les Républicains, and Reconquête. Even centrist voters are asking pointed questions: Why should France welcome 2.3 million Gazans (the current population of Gaza), while thousands of French citizens live in poverty or wait years for housing? Where will these newcomers find work? Who will fund their welfare? Will the rest of Europe, through the EU budget, be expected to help pay for a French policy no other member state supports?
According to OECD projections[9], France’s public spending is already under strain, with social welfare, healthcare, and housing costs rising. Supporting such a large influx — many with limited education and trauma from prolonged conflict — would require tens of billions annually. France may seek EU assistance, potentially making all European taxpayers contributors to a nationally-decided policy.
### So why France?
Macron has no formal authority over immigration law — the decision lies with courts like the CNDA and their interpretation of European and international treaties. Though judicially powerless to overturn the ruling, he remains politically accountable. Yet Macron has not objected. Why?
The answer lies in domestic alliances: a bureaucracy aligned with internationalist NGOs, a media class hostile to Israeli policy, pro-Palestinian networks, and electoral considerations in Muslim-majority suburbs. These factors converge in what resembles appeasement politics. Crucially, no pressure came from Brussels; the EU has not mandated this policy. France is acting alone. Even Muslim-majority countries such as Turkey, Morocco, and Indonesia — all vocal supporters of the Palestinian cause — have explicitly declined to accept refugees from Gaza, citing national security concerns.[5]
### Post-democracy in Action
Formally, Macron governs. Informally, an ideological layer of judges, administrators, and policy-makers — rooted in moral cosmopolitanism and international treaties — holds sway. This technocracy is unelected and unaccountable. Democratic forms remain, but real power resides with elites beyond electoral reach.
### What is France Importing?
A December 2023 poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that 72% of Gazans supported the 7 October attacks[7]. Nearly half saw Hamas as a legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.
France is not merely taking in a displaced population. It is absorbing a society in which Hamas enjoys majority support, where public celebrations of mass violence are common, and where antisemitism is systemic. France, already financially overburdened, will be expected to house, feed, and provide welfare to a traumatised, radicalised, low-education population. Who will pay for this? What does Macron expect from these 2.3 million people?
With France’s economy already faltering, the pressure will inevitably fall on the native working class. In most European countries, citizens must work until 67. What will it become? Are all Europeans condemned to lifelong labour because others collapse under pro-Palestinian pressure?
### A Terrifying Future
How will France — and Europe — look in 20 to 30 years? Fertility rates are lopsided: in Italy it stands at 1.3 children per woman; in the Netherlands at 1.7. Among Muslim families in France, the average is nearly 3.0. In Gaza, it exceeds 3.3. Over time, this creates a profound demographic imbalance. Sharia-inspired laws may emerge where French civil code once stood. What future will remain for Christians, Jews, or secularists?
The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 1:16: “first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.” This biblical verse — once a theological promise that blessing would reach the Gentile only after the Jew — now reads more like a prophetic warning in the context of modern history and European vulnerability. Not all Muslims are radical — but where are their voices? Their silence signals neither gratitude nor integration, but a quiet claim to dominance.
### And What About Europe — and Israel?
As France becomes a safe haven for Hamas ideology, their children may grow into voting blocs, public servants, even policymakers. A continent once grounded in Judeo-Christian values may gradually adopt a worldview shaped by Hamas’s ideological legacy. Israel may one day face not a hostile regime in Gaza, but a much larger and stronger Western bloc governed by electorates raised in Hamas-supporting households. This development must stop at once. Post-democracy has no place in Western society. Macron has the obligation — and the responsibility — to change the course of Europe now. Later does not exist.
Conclusion
The question is not *whether* protection is needed — but *at what cost, and for whom?*
France is endangering its domestic stability, European alliances, democratic legitimacy, and already strained economy — all for a policy no voter approved. And this burden will not remain France’s alone. The consequences — financial, societal, and geopolitical — will ripple across all of Europe.
In this scenario, Israel may no longer face Hamas in Gaza, but instead a much larger and stronger adversary — a Western electorate shaped by the children of its former enemies, now integrated into European institutions and decision-making bodies.
When leaders act without their people, they are not moral guides. They are insulated autocrats. And this crisis — born of silence and imposed by decree — will strike France, then Europe, and eventually Israel, in ways no one will be able to undo.
In the third article in this series, we will explore the early warnings by Dr. Martin Sherman — particularly his 1992 and 2006 predictions — which foresaw the current crisis in Gaza.
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Yoella Wells MSc is a psycho-political analyst. She previously wrote “Paris Against the Rest” (July 2025) on European division around Gaza and Israel. She studied in Leiden and Oxford, and is founder of Europeans Fight Antisemitism.
Sources:
1. Le Figaro – Le CNDA accorde le statut de réfugié à tous les Gazaouis, 11 July 2025
2. AFP / France24 – Macron pushes for recognition of Palestine, June 2025
3. IFOP – Opinion des Français sur l’immigration, March 2024
4. Valeurs Actuelles – L’accueil massif des Gazaouis : une erreur historique, July 2025
5. Middle East Monitor – Erdogan urges support for Gaza, refuses refugee intake, April 2024
6. Politico Europe – Most EU states reject mass Gaza refugee status, July 2025
7. PCPSR – Palestinian Public Opinion Poll, December 2023
8. The New York Times – Videos show celebrations in Gaza after Oct 7 attacks, Oct 2023
9. OECD – France: Economic Outlook 2025, June 2025
10. Pew Research Center – The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2015–2050
11. Eurostat – Population by religious affiliation in France, 2024
