French policy towards its racial and religious minorities contains many ambiguities and contradictions that are hard for the French to understand, let alone outsiders. The extraordinarily shocking attack in Nice which took many lives joins a growing list of atrocities in which one element appears to be hatred towards French people and their institutions on the part of alienated members of the largest ethnic minority in France, those whose forebears were born and raised in North Africa. Despite the best intentions, expressed in the Republic’s motto, liberty, equality, fraternity, France is not comfortable with itself. A “settlement” regarding differences of race and religion seems far off.

This unease feeds a widespread dissatisfaction with politics and politicians, shown by the booing of the Prime Minister Manuel Valls when he visited Nice this week. Anger at the political establishment, by no means unique to France, is not limited to its failure to provide adequate protection for people attending a Bastille Day fireworks display. It is a sense that French civilisation is itself becoming unmanageable.