My Experience as an American Censored by French Authorities

On Halloween in Paris, a video went viral of an angry protester throwing a Molotov cocktail at the French police. It was an egregious act, and though the violence drew deserved condemnation, the French government had taken a very different approach to another controversy that same day: Rather than confront political violence, it had moved to silence a political debate.

On the same day, I was scheduled to join activists from all over Europe and the U.S. to speak at an international political conference, “Remigration: Let’s Open the Debate!” (Remigration is a term Europeans use for deportations, whether forced or voluntary). Organized by the French think tank Polémia and set to bring together politicians and activists who support remigration, the conference organizers received a decree two days before banning the conference.

Justifying its decision by citing the risk of public disorder and characterizing remigration as a xenophobic and racist ideology, the French government forced Polémia to cancel the in-person event, and an administrative court rejected the emergency appeal. The conference (meant to have about 800 people attending) was broadcast instead on a livestream on X and YouTube.

In the hours between the ban from the French state and the appeal decision, European remigration activist and conference keynote Martin Sellner was banned from entering France after arriving at Paris–Beauvais airport, held in a cell, and forcibly deported on a plane to Austria. He was prevented from hosting a book event, speaking at the conference, and leading a rally for the Save Europe Act (a patriotic European citizen’s initiative that advocates for remigration).

This rally was also prevented by French authorities. Instead, a gathering formed of a few hundred peaceful remigration activists in a restaurant outside the Paris city center. Not even a few hours into the event, the police of Paris issued an emergency decree to make sure everyone evacuated the premises.

Witnessing these three events in the span of 48 hours in Paris, I began to fully appreciate the extent of the French state’s ability to silence its ideological enemies. Gone was our ability to speak freely and organize peacefully, in the same moments that leftists, Antifa, Islamists, and immigrant factions were allowed to wreak violent chaos in the streets.

During the protests earlier in the month, I saw shops boarded up, vandalized, and looted. A Parisian friend feared that her apartment building would be set on fire. Against the backdrop of these nightmarish images, it is absolutely absurd that “disturbance to the public order” would be a legitimate reason to ban the remigration conference less than 48 hours before the event was set to begin.

At the 2025 Munich Security Conference, Vice President JD Vance stated bluntly that we, as Americans, are worried about “the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values,” including values shared with the United States. He cited a number of free speech cases across the continent that reveal the extent to which our allied governments censor political opposition while simultaneously neglecting their native populations in favor of often-hostile immigrants.

Vance received a lot of criticism about that speech, but the French government’s actions this past weekend are unfortunately a perfect illustration of the problem the vice president correctly identified. Not only were French citizens prevented from expressing their beliefs, but Americans and other European activists were too. All this because the government decided in advance which positions may be heard.

In Europe, advocacy for remigration is becoming more and more mainstream. There are many reasons for this, but one major one is that average citizens are noticing the decline in their communities from crime, unassimilated enclaves, and the disappearance of life as it used to be. A reported 83% of French citizens support the expulsion of foreigners who are lawbreakers, criminals, or long-term unemployed.

That said, plenty of Europeans still regard the Trump administration’s criticism of European speech restrictions as intrusive. Why should Washington concern itself with the domestic political decisions of democratic allies? Why should the United States question European governments over their treatment of activists and political organizations?

The answer is that American foreign policy must consider not only the condition of allied nations today but also the direction or trajectory in which they are moving. European leadership restricting freedom of speech and banning entry to peaceful activists cannot be dismissed as purely domestic when it affects American citizens and raises questions about the values on which the transatlantic alliance rests.

The consequences of immigration in Europe are more serious now than ever. So are the consequences of censorship. These civilizational issues are front and center in France now and in all Western Europe. They will not disappear because a conference is prohibited or a position is labeled unacceptable. If anything, such responses will only empower the advocates for restoration and remigration. With broader political movements demanding changes to immigration policy, Europe’s political leaders have a choice.

They can reverse course, which would hurt, but the other option would be even more painful: increasingly relying on administrative prohibitions to keep disfavored questions off the public agenda and empower causes that lead to the breakdown of social order.

The latter course would not strengthen Europe. It would only prove that our closest allies have backslid into totalitarianism.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.

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