In March, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called for a full investigation into excessive force used by French police against protesters. But as well as responding with an influx of police, heavy-handed legislation was introduced by the French government to give police the power to search demonstrators and ban them from covering their faces. It was only thanks to the constitutional court that a particularly pernicious measure enabling police to ban anyone preemptively suspected of being a troublemaker was struck down.

The assault on civil society in Turkey and Russia is entrenched and well-documented. In Europe’s east, the governments of Poland and Hungary barely disguise their dismantling of hard-won democratic achievements. And yet, in Western Europe, a complacency can take root when it comes to fundamental freedoms; we take them for granted and when government legislation begins to quietly, or violently, erode them many of us don’t believe it’s happening.

For a supposed liberal democracy to be blinding protesters, granting authorities sweeping search powers, presiding over an effectively permanent state of emergency, arresting journalists [link in French], and receiving condemnation from the United Nations and Amnesty International, should concern us all.

If the government’s aim is to quell unrest, these repressive measures are having the opposite effect. President Macron’s overzealous policing has, for example, had the perverse effect of making political dissidents of the far right, who ultimately have no interest in civil liberties but scream censorship when their views are curtailed online. Widely shared videos of their members injured at the hands of the state provide provocative content for fundraising drives.

It is possible to both stand against the far-right element in the gilets jaunes and denounce the police brutality meted out against them.

The militarization of French policing strategy is not a new phenomenon; it was on full display during the 2005 banlieus riots and Muslims and other marginalized groups have long received disproportionate harassment by authorities. Now, though, it has reached center stage.

The anti-casseurs legislation characterizes protest as a “riot” and in doing so makes the peaceful majority complicit in the actions of the violent few. The promotion of public order over individual rights and freedoms should be seen as part of a broader, global trend of democratic backsliding and the choking of civil society that needs countering at every level.

Long associated with being a beacon of liberty, France is straying into deeply illiberal territory. Two hundred thirty years later, the freedom and equality celebrated on Bastille Day deserves to be honored.