The état d´urgence in Frankreich and the othering of protest

For two decades, French politics have been characterized by states of emergencies. In 2015 and because of terrorist attacks, an anti-terrorist state of emergency was declared that lasted until 2017. The Covid- 19 pandemic was also governed by means of a sanitary state of emergency. Political and legal effects of the anti-terrorist state of emergency have been mainly observed in changes in the criminal law, the fostering of Anti-Muslim racism and a more repressive handling of protests. In my project, I seek to analyse the effects of the anti-terrorist state of emergency on protest arguing that it reflects a postcolonial context. It is not only rooted in colonial legislation, but also reproduces colonial images of ethnicised and racialized Others and colonial policing (e.g. racial profiling). States of emergencies hence tend to intensify postcolonial power relations in France, e.g. by targeting communities of colour more violently, but also tend to extend policing practices, stemming from colonial contexts, towards a broader range of protest actors. This extension could especially be observed during debates on police violence, which affected the Yellow Vest movements in 2018/2019. Against the backdrop of the postcolonial context of the anti-terrorist state of emergency, I am interested in the relationship between states of emergencies in Western democracies, postcolonial power relations and the governing and self-governing of protest. My analysis is twofold and includes a media analysis and qualitative interviews. First, I analyze how protest has been framed in media discourse, with the aim of capturing the mechanisms of governing. Second, I analyse how protest actors have represented themselves as well as how they have acted as protest actors during and since the state of emergency (self- governing). I draw on debates on protest policing and securitization and debates on states of emergencies and postcolonialism. I especially make use of the postcolonial concept of Othering, understood as the process of marking predominantly racialized and ethnicised groups as Others, that is, as not part of the nation or the state. In doing so I conceptualize the anti-terrorist state of emergency as a postcolonial dispositif, in which protest actors are governed and govern themselves through Othering. Whereas a broader range of protest actors might be affected by Othering, its effects differ according to social categories such as gender, class and/or race/ethnicity. Consequently, I focus on progressive protest movements (antiracism, environment/climate, social justice) that differ with respect to their political objectives, protest forms and identity positions and experiences with (hard) protest policing. By engaging with protest actors now and by including movements active during and after the state of emergency, I aim at analysing the effects of the anti-terrorist state of emergency on protest movements beyond its official end.