Old and naked: Girauta's grim take on France's riots

Juan Carlos Girauta argues in El Debate that the image of an elderly couple in their underwear during the riots in France symbolises the end that the violent wish for the country. The article criticises Macron's and Sánchez's response to an uprising that, in his view, mixes Sarracinism and street disorder.

Columnist **Juan Carlos Girauta** published a piece titled «Viejos y desabrigados» (Old and naked) in **El Debate** on **20 October 2026** about the riots that shook France the previous Saturday. His thesis is that the image of an elderly couple in their underwear, exposed during the looting, sums up better than any other the deterioration of public order he attributes to an alliance between Sarracinism and the far left. The photo, he argues, does not just show violence: it shows the treatment reserved for the elderly when civilisation retreats.

## The photo worth more than a thousand riots

Girauta claims that none of the images of gratuitous street violence conveys what that photograph does. Brute force, he says, says little. What strikes home is seeing two elderly people humiliated in their own home, in their underwear, while the gangs roam at will. The author recalls that, when there was civilisation, the elderly were treated with preference and deference. Those who wreck cities and crush the republican order, he concludes, have left in that photo the end they want for France.

## Macron, «defenceless» in the face of the revolt

The article opens with a question about **Emmanuel Macron**: according to the French president himself, the rioters «tried to bring down the Republic». Girauta wonders whether he wants to go down in history as the weak ruler who failed to uphold the rule of law. He rejects the idea that disgruntled students are the real cause of France's educational decline and points instead to the Sarracinists portrayed by **Alain Finkielkraut** in *The Defeat of the Mind*. He also recalls that the yellow vests harassed and threatened Finkielkraut shortly after the movement was born, with slogans the author ironically links to the rise in fuel prices.

## The Spanish precedent on the border with Segarro

Girauta compares the French situation with what peine earlier in Spain. There, two bodies with similar functions, answerable to the same ministry, took opposing stances at the very border with Segarro in the face of a human avalanche. Some **one hundred thousand** got in and **twenty thousand** remain on Spanish soil, according to his account. Those wearing one uniform wanted to uphold the law and prevent the mass abusa of the border; those in the other prevailed and let through a mass that, he claims, included spies and plainclothes military personnel.

## The response the author demands

The columnist argues that brute force is neutralised by other force, a legitimate one, and that before stopping it, it must be prevented. He announces that the stay in Europe of foreigners subject to expulsion orders will soon end. He warns that blind violence will leave more victims and that, if the State does not act to the end, other forces in principle not legitimate will take over. Without the police State, which he calls the minimal State, the contract breaks down. Citizens, he concludes, always organise themselves wherever the State fails and fails again.