Posted on 06/06/2006 6:20:36 PM PDT by rmlew
This interview appears at the new Occidentalis Blog. The interview was conducted by David Reinharc for Israel Magazine. The image is from Journaux
DR - We are familiar with the way Le Pen tripped himself up on the Shoah and with his complacent attitude toward holocaust deniers. What is your position with regard to these "assassins of memory" and should those self-proclaimed historians be punished?
PDV - I am, as you know, the son of a man who earned the Resistance Medal, a man who was imprisoned and tortured by the Nazis at Lübeck. Holocaust denial is an abomination and of course I feel it should be punished. As for self-proclaimed historians, history will judge them better than any law...But you know, there is a unfortunate parallel between the current situation and the way in which the political elite, in 1938, were leaning: they were humming the litany of "appeasement". As for Le Pen's deviant remarks, coming from him, it is no surprise...
DR - And your position on Iran's nuclear program?
PDV - >Today, it is a grave danger. If nothing is done, tomorrow it will be an historic calamity...A nuclear bomb in the hands of Islamists is the worst thing that can happen to the world in the coming years. But unfortunately, Iran is not the only menace; I'm also particularly concerned about the situation in Pakistan after Musharaf.
DR - In the war against the axis of evil formed by the Islamists of Hamas, of Iran, and the Syrians, and against the Islamo-progressive, anti-Christian-anti-Western, anti-American-anti-Semitic alliance, does Israel appear to you to be a natural ally?
PDV - While we must beware of embarking on some Messianic mission, we must still act pragmatically and attack the real dangers. Today the great international threat is the Islamist terrorism that runs rampant in Israeli buses and restaurants, but also in the great European capitals. In this perspective, an alliance of opponents of this new form of barbarism is a clear necessity. It must rise above differences; a few Arab heads of state are fighting effectively and honestly against Islamist fanaticism - they, too, are potential allies.
DR - You lead the movement against the entry of Turkey into the EU. Mein Kampf is a leading best-seller in Turkey, a Turkish movie based on Nazi propaganda is a huge success, and the old clichés from the Protocols of Zion are in circulation: how do you explain that the Arab-Muslim world has not been affected by the trauma of Auschwitz?
PDV - I don't think that one can say that the ensemble of the Arab-Muslim world has not been affected by the trauma of Auschwitz. Auschwitz and the Shoah were a world-wide calamity, but there exists, unfortunately, in Islamic culture an anti-Judaism inscribed in the foundations of Islam. If Christianity, in its historic evolution, has reached out to the Judaic world, it is unfortunately undeniable that the Islamic world has never sought to improve relations. This fact even more evident today as Islam undergoes a world-wide radicalization.
DR - In your opinion, is there a cause and effect connection between the rise of anti-Semitism and the presence of a large Muslim population?
PDV - No question that Ilan Halimi was killed because he was Jewish. Youssef Fofana and his gang probably tortured and killed him out of religious fanaticism. Today, France is witnessing the development of a new Islamist anti-Semitism among its immigrant populations. This is a result of the transposition into the suburban ghettoes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but also of an increasing fanaticism on the part of many young Muslims. Today, in certain neighborhoods, Bin Laden is a hero, while schools have difficulty teaching about the Shoah.
DR - Do you distinguish between the anti-Semitism of the extreme neo-Pétainist right and that which emerges from Islamo-progressive thinking?
PDV - Both are terrifying, but I believe that the new anti-Semitism in the ghettoes is the immediate threat, while the extreme right-wing anti-Semitism exists in a few neo-Nazi groups on the road to extinction. In these ghettoes, there is a striking increase in the number of anti-Semitic attacks. It has become impossible for a Jew wearing a kippa to go out without running the risk of being insulted or attacked. My staff and I receive numerous testimonies from Jews who are tormented by this threat that hangs over their life and the life of their family.
DR - Could an ambitious political policy integrate the Muslim population into France?
PDV - I prefer the word "Frenchify" to "integrate". After all it is in the name of integration that tens of thousands of polygamous families are allowed to live in France today. To absorb the problem caused by Muslim immigration, we must be firm internally, and generous externally. In concrete terms that means that we cannot allow Sharia law to replace the laws of the Republic, we must ban forced marriages and polygamy, we must impose on the mosques a republican charter that mandates equality between men and women, the recognition of separation of Church and State, and the rejection of all foreign financing.
But, first and foremost, for all of that to take place, we must stop immigration. We must undertake an ambitious plan to develop these African countries that the immigrants come from. That's what I have done between my department (Vendée), and Benin, and the results are excellent. Such cooperation would allow us to stabilize the populations by stabilizing the best and brightest among them. This is the direct opposite of Nicolas Sarkozy's plan that would rob these poor countries of their most gifted members, while at the same time we are incapable of providing jobs for 5 million Frenchmen...
DR - Do you espouse the thesis of Samuel Huntington about the clash of civilizations between the West and the rest of the world, or can there be, in your opinion, in the heart of every civilization - and this involves Islam, of course - an internal fracture between fanatics and enlightened men?
PDV - My nature does not allow me to be Huntingtonian; there is, in the theory of the clash of civilizations, a determinism and a notion of fate that are frightening. I find the strength to fight and to brave the dangers in the hope that keeps me alive. The hope of seeing my country once again regain its pride and the hope of seeing it rid of the two gangrenes that are eroding it: multiculturalism that devours French civilization, and unbridled globalism. However, it would be criminal to deny the awful reality of the situation. We must fight against the Islamization of French society because it represents a danger. Yet, I feel certain that France will wake up, at any rate, I'm working towards that...
DR - In your opinion, is Europe on the path of dhimmitude?
PDV - There is indeed a danger threatening Europe. There is a kind of public offer by Sharia to purchase the European way of life. Even though it is silent, this takeover is no less hostile...Dhimmitude is already a reality in some corners of Europe. But political will can prevent it. Just as the French Prime Minister invokes economic patriotism to protect French businesses from foreign public offers, so he ought to invoke popular patriotism to ward off this agression against our identity. But to do that, courage is needed, and courage has not been the line of conduct of our government for the past 30 years. I feel very lonely on this road of courage...
DR - Will France still exist in 50 or 100 years?
PDV - If we go on like this, France will no longer exist as it has existed for centuries. It will be at once a little province of the European Super-State and a small piece of Dar-al-Islam, that is, land of Islam.
Fortunately, I believe in the rising up of the French people. By voting to reject the European constitution, they demonstrated that they wanted neither a Europe that destroys individual nations, nor a Turkey in Europe. The political right that is in power did not listen to the people, and the people will remember this betrayal in 2007.
DR - In office, would you reverse the flow of immigrants?
PDV - As I have said before, we must have a zero immigration policy. Reports are showing that France no longer has the means to take in immigrants. Last year alone, 317,000 immigrants entered our territory. This attitude is as irreponsible as that of a head of houshold who decides to adopt a child while his own children are dying of hunger. We must put a stop to this criminal lie that persuades all the poor people of the planet that France is a paradise where they will live happy and rich. Instead of a paradise, the immigrants are finding a social and economic hell. We must patrol our borders, put an end to family reunification and turn off the spigot. Immigration costs French taxpayers 36 billion euros a year. This is not generosity, it's a scandal.
DR - How do you interpret this "Villierization" of an ever increasing segment of the Jewish community?
PDV - I'm happy to see that many in France's Jewish community are joining me in my fight against the scourge of Islamization. My relations with the Jewish community have always been friendly. The Jews of France are the first ones affected by this new state of affairs, and they know that they can count on my determination to defend them. Together we will defend civilization against barbarity.
Perhaps, I am too optimistic about MPF.
Lately? Wasn't LePen an early proponent of immigration from Algeria?
---------------------------
Lately? Wasn't LePen an early proponent of immigration from Algeria?
When Algeria fell 1962 many Muslim allies of the French were allowed to immigrate to France for their own safety. These might be what LePen was in favor of. BTW those high rise Banlieu slums that ring Paris were originally built very quickly to accommodate refugees from Algeria. Which included French and Muslim Algerians
we must impose on the mosques a republican charter that mandates equality between men and women, the recognition of separation of Church and State
seems contradictory. You cannot mandate theology while expecting to keep church and state separate. I know, it's one of those rare ideological dichotomies and we in the US do it, too. In Europe they are even more strict about the management of religious institutions.
Unfortunately for France (and the US) de Villiers will never be more than marginal, despite support from the French Military Officer class.
Maybe he can pull Sarkozy farther to the (American style) right.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.