Candidate Bardot?

Brigitte Bardot has written yet another letter to Nicolas Sarkozy. I'll never know why, but she must feel that by bringing him face to face with his failures she can trigger a change. As always with Bardot, this is about the suffering of animals ritually slaughtered to produce halal meat - not just for Muslims as we now know - but for all of France (and for much of the world). A previous letter in which she berated him and his ministers for their indifference and cowardice was posted at GalliaWatch in July. Here is her latest reprimand, taken from her website, in which she announces her intention to run for president of France in 2012!

Mr. President,

I have to admit that you are incapable of doing what you say you will do and of keeping your promises. It's appalling, scandalous, but that's the way it is!

On December 22, 2006, you wrote to me: "I want the halal slaughterhouses to begin now, concretely and rapidly, to implement a generalized procedure that stuns the animal before slaughter." You used even stronger language on September 27, 2007, at Elysée Palace, when you assured me that it was your job to "definitively impose" the stunning of animals during Jewish and Muslim ritual slaughter.

Not only have you done nothing, but your successive interior ministers made the decision for you by firmly opposing a generalized stunning of animals before bleeding them.

Because of you, in our slaughterhouses the animals' throats are slit while they are conscious. Their throat is cut, but they can still feel pain until they lose consciousness... These barbaric procedures are unworthy and unacceptable in our so-called civilized era!

Mr. President, you do not keep your word, it's a fact, everyone knows it, but what makes it even worse is that you refuse to tell the truth to your fellow citizens.

Today, the derogation allowing for slaughter without stunning is no longer an exception "limited" to ritual slaughter, but a general rule, even though the French people do not know they are consuming meat produced from cruel slaughtering methods. The European Union is concerned about this development that affects our country, and it is looking into labeling that would specify the method of slaughter.

Note: This implies that the E.U., which is very pro-Muslim and pro-halal, finds nonetheless that the French have gone too far in making halal the standard for everyone.

Your Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux declared that he would oppose this measure of transparency for the consumer. His staffers are going even further, since they are now working on a "halal referential", that would ban all forms of anesthesia for animals. The last straw is that the Muslim authorities did not ask for this. They acknowledge that there is nothing in their sacred texts that forbids the stunning of an animal before the blood-letting. Here, we have gone far beyond collaboration and this is certainly not helping to make our nation great!

Since you do the opposite of what you say, and since your ministers hide the truth from the French people, I am going to study the proposal from the "Alliance Ecologiste Indépendante" that I become their candidate in the 2012 presidential election... Somebody's voice must be heard in defense of the animals, since nobody, on the Right or Left, gives a damn!

I no longer have faith in you, but you could limit the damage by reminding your interior minister that France is a secular country. This would be a lesser evil.

Brigitte Bardot

If you click the link provided above to her website, you will see graphic images. At the bottom of the page is a link to her letter in PDF format.

The leaders of the AEI (Alliance Ecologiste Indépendante) are denying that they asked Bardot to be their candidate. Antoine Waechter, one of the two party chairmen declared:

"I don't know what misunderstanding could have led to such a supposition. The question was never raised by the offices of the AEI, and no measures regarding BB were ever submitted to me. (...) Mme Bardot's action is respectable, but not sufficient to warrant a presidential campaign."

And yet, according to Au Feminin:

Last September Mr. Waechter had written a letter to BB. A copy was sent to Agence France Press, and the least one can say is that it was not indifferent to the fame and the commitment of the former sex symbol:

"We will present candidates throughout the country in the 2012 legislative election, and we're looking for the best person to represent us in the 2012 presidential election. We have you in mind, and would like to discuss it with you."

Caught in the act of lying, Mr. Antoine Waechter! But why?

Note: I cannot answer the question. If she is telling the truth, and it appears she is, it could be the AEI is angry that she broke the news instead of the party itself. But she did not say she was a candidate; she only said that she would study their proposal. So I don't see why the AEI is backing off.

Var Matin published an interview with Bardot following her announcement to consider the offer from AEI. It is too long to translate, but here are a couple of passages:

- What got into you?

- My decision to be the AEI candidate in 2012 is above all aimed at stirring up the hornets' nest. Sarkozy is incapable of doing what he says, of keeping his promises. Somebody has to be heard. To think that I have to go into politics that I hate... but that's how laws are passed. The influence of my Foundation is unfortunately not enough.

- Isn't it an anachronism to find you in the camp of the ecologists, when everyone expects you to be on the side of the "hard" Right?

- You can say that I am neither on the Right or the Left, but on the side of the animals and of nature. I don't care a fig about the rest!

- Seriously, will you see this through?

- As I said, I'm thinking about it... Do you realize that for thirty-seven years I have been looking after the animals, and there is still no improvement. I'm 76, and I've had it. I'm not going to live fifty more years, so I really must get things moving! The politicians must react. Generally, I first write them a letter, then I insult them. Now I've decided to run (laughter).

- You thanked Carla Bruni for her position on furs. Will she extend a friendly hand to you?

- Pffft... No. Last June I sent her the first Bardot hand-bag made by Lancel. Two and a half months went by before she deigned to thank me. And it was only because I spoke about her lack of politeness to the media. I expect nothing from her, any more than from her husband who is happier taking care of the Roma than the animals.

Note: Bardot's candidacy, if it materializes, will be purely symbolic. It will be the anti-halal ticket, and as such it has much importance, but I doubt that she will make much of a dent in the voting results. We don't know what her position is on other issues, if indeed she has a position on any issue besides animal welfare. Will she come out against immigration, against public money being used to build mosques, against subsidies and medical care for immigrants? In the interview above she said she had no interest in anything but the animals. Does she realize that the lot of the French people has to improve before the animals can really be helped? The people have to regain pride in their country, their farms, their countryside, their culinary traditions, before they can give compassion to the animals. Children have to be properly cared for and educated, so that they grow up with a sense of responsibility towards the animals and nature. A lot of work has to be accomplished before halal becomes a dim memory.

In the name of "compassion", the French opened their borders to Muslims. The animals are paying the price for this "compassion" in suffering and blood. The French people are, in a manner of speaking, also being bled, as their numbers dwindle in favor of the "new blood" of immigrants.

The ritual slaughter thus becomes symbolic of the greater destruction of an entire civilization.