ISTANBUL
The debate surrounding the so-called “great replacement” has been recurring with worrying frequency in French public media.
Media figures on outlets such as CNews and France Info increasingly link immigration, Islam and demographic “threats.”
This normalization of rhetoric is fueling an atmosphere of mistrust and rejection, while Islamophobic acts are surging.
According to figures published on July 3, 2025 by the French Interior Ministry, anti-Muslim acts rose by 75% between January and May 2025, compared to the same period in 2024.
The trend illustrates the correlation between the spread of hateful discourse and the unleashing of violence.
Faced with this situation, Catherine Wihtol de Wenden, a political scientist and migration expert, warned against such instrumentalization.
“The angry far-right always tends to arm itself to attack. They see themselves as crusaders facing an enemy they themselves have invented,” she told Anadolu.
The researcher stressed that the “great replacement” is “a political myth, not a demographic reality.”
Demographic data shows immigration accounts for 10% of Europe’s population and 10.7% in France – far from any so-called “replacement.”
Born within far-right circles, the theory claims that European populations are being replaced by non-European, often Muslim, non-Christian populations.
Popularized in the 2010s by writer Renaud Camus, it was later amplified in the public debate by Eric Zemmour and his supporters.
Wihtol de Wenden added that migration is a “slow, continuous and natural phenomenon” that has always accompanied societies throughout history.
The myth of a “great replacement,” she argued, is nothing more than an “ancestral fear,” rooted in a medieval imagination of invasion, revived by modern ideologues.
Media, freedom and responsibility
The Interior Ministry data showing a 75% increase in anti-Muslim acts between January and May 2025 points to an “ordinary radicalization” fueled by the normalization of hate speech.
Often cloaked in appeals to “freedom of expression,” such rhetoric has multiplied in the media space.
For Wihtol de Wenden, this freedom “ends where hatred begins.” She recalled that French laws – notably those of 1972 and 2000 – punish speech inciting racial or religious discrimination.
Despite this legal framework, some media continue to spread stigmatizing claims: in September, a CNews commentator claimed “Muslims will be the majority in 2050,” while a France Info journalist described them as a “demographic threat inherently antisemitic.”
“This is not a democratic debate. It is a strategy of fear that legitimizes hatred,” she said.
“CNews is not a space of free expression. It is a dangerous discourse that fuels fear and justifies acts of violence.”
Troubling climate of normalization
The danger, she warned, lies not only in words but also in the actions they may inspire.
Wihtol de Wenden referred to “the angry far-right,” a term she uses for militants who translate identity obsessions into violence.
“They behave like crusaders seeking to defend a civilization they believe is under threat,” she said.
She cited recent examples of such violence: the killing of 24-year-old Aboubakar Cisse, stabbed while praying in a mosque, and the attack on the mayor of Saint-Brevin-les-Pins, whose home and car were set on fire after a migrant reception center opened.
Wihtol de Wenden also noted that anti-immigration sentiment is often stronger in areas with very few foreign residents, showing that this fear is largely disconnected from reality.
The media construction of a “cultural enemy,” she said, reinforces the normalization of racism.
“Diversity is enrichment. A society that does not renew itself ends up dying,” she concluded.
