Following up on Friday’s post on political extremism (“A very tardy and timely movie recommendation: ‘The Baader Meinhof Complex’”), here’s French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy on the ongoing violence in France, via the WSJ:

(With) his country teetering on a cliff, Mr. Lévy’s attention is elsewhere. “You can sense that we are on the brink of civil war,” Mr. Lévy says. “The worst part is that the country’s two main political forces now have an interest in the riots—Le Pen because she would take power, Mélenchon because he would take control of the streets. This domestic Yalta is the nightmare of all moderates, whether conservative or liberal.” …

Mr. Lévy regards Ms. Le Pen and Mr. Mélenchon with equal distaste.“They are a right-wing and a left-wing version of the same populism—a right-wing Trumpism, if you like, and a kind of left-wing Trumpism, both sharing the same fundamental tendencies.” … It is a death match, he says, over “which of them will have the dreadful privilege of ruining this country.”

As they say, read the whole thing.