Share :

Download PDF :

Politico (9 September 2020)

John Lichfield

A new word has entered France’s political lexicon: “ensauvagement.”

Or rather, this new word — which translates as “descent into savagery”— has made its way from the political fringes into the mainstream discourse.

When Marine Le Pen in 2013 first plucked the term from a book written by the far-right author Laurent Obertone, no one paid much attention. But since September 2018, the leader of the far-right National Rally has used it in every speech and TV appearance, painting a picture of a country under siege from a surge of uncontrolled criminal violence she blames on cities’ poor inner suburbs and the effects of “mass migration.”

Click for more