“Serbs are a people without laws and without religion.”
(Attributed to Jacques Chirac, during a meeting with the heads of government of the member states of the EU, June 1995.)
This harsh statement, attributed to French President Jacques Chirac, dates to June 1995 during a meeting with EU heads of government. It reflects the intense emotions and diplomatic frustrations of the Bosnian War era, one of the bloodiest conflicts in post-World War II Europe.
Jacques Chirac assumed the French presidency in May 1995, succeeding François Mitterrand. He inherited a complex and faltering international response to the breakup of Yugoslavia. The Bosnian War (1992–1995) pitted Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim), Croat, and Serb forces against each other amid ethnic cleansing, sieges, and atrocities. Bosnian Serb forces, backed by Slobodan Milošević’s Serbia, were responsible for many of the worst crimes, including the siege of Sarajevo.
By mid-1995, the situation had reached a boiling point. UNPROFOR (United Nations Protection Force) peacekeepers, including French troops, faced humiliation—hostage-taking by Bosnian Serb forces and ineffective mandates. Chirac, known for his energetic and sometimes impulsive style, pushed for a more robust European response. France had significant troops on the ground and a traditional interest in Balkan stability.
The quote reportedly emerged in this climate of anger. According to contemporary reporting, such as a June 13, 1995, Le Monde article titled “La colère antiserbe de Jacques Chirac” (“Jacques Chirac’s Anti-Serb Anger”), Chirac interrupted discussions about a “war of religion,” exclaiming that the Serbs were “people without faith or law, terrorists.” A similar version appears in Wikiquote: “Serbs are a people without law and without faith. It is a nation of bandits and terrorists.”
This outburst came weeks before the July 1995 fall of Srebrenica, where Bosnian Serb forces under Ratko Mladić massacred over 8,000 Bosniak men and boys—the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II. Chirac reacted strongly to these events, urging military action to recapture the enclave and criticizing Western hesitation.
The phrasing “without laws and without religion” (or “without faith or law,” sans foi ni loi in French) is a traditional French expression implying lawlessness and barbarism.
Chirac’s stance evolved with events. He supported NATO’s 1995 Operation Deliberate Force, which helped end the Bosnian War via the Dayton Agreement. In 1999, during the Kosovo War, France participated in the NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia to halt ethnic cleansing of Kosovar Albanians.
