Louis-Ferdinand Céline Removed from Honor Roll

Sarcasm, gloating and contempt for French Minister of Culture Frédéric Mitterand have characterized the output from several websites these past few days, after it was announced that the name of Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1894-1961) had been removed from the list of five hundred national commemorations for the year 2011. Sarcasm towards the government officials for thinking they had to punish Céline for his anti-Semitism by removing his name, all in the name of anti-racism and atonement for the sins of France. Gloating, because everyone knows that more books by Céline will be sold than ever before, thanks to this latest act of official censorship. Gloating, too, because everyone knows that were he alive Céline would be tickled pink to be censored by the Minister of Culture. And contempt for Frédéric Mitterand for yielding to pressure from Serge Klarsfeld. (I should add that some are relieved over the decision because they feel Céline was not worthy of France.)

Here is the English-language article from Haaretz:

One of France's best-known 20th century novelists has been removed from the list of national commemorations for 2011, French culture minister Frederic Mitterand announced over the weekend.

Mitterand decided not to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Louis-Ferdinand Celine, author of Journey to the End of Night, Mea Culpa, Guigol's Band and other works, following protests by Jewish community groups over his well-known anti-Semitism.

"Celine's talent must not allow us to forget the man who called for the killing of Jews during the occupation," said Serge Klarsfeld, president of the FFDJF, an association of descendents of Jews deported from France during World War II.

Klarsfeld called Mitterand's decision "courageous."

The list of commemorations this year includes the establishment of the national center for space exploration, the first issue of the graphic novel Asterix and the birthday of the French composer Franz Lizst.

Note: That must be an error. Franz Lizst was Hungarian. If he is on the list it might be because of his influence on European music, but Haaretz has still committed a glaring error in calling him "French".

Richard Prasquier, the president of KRIF, France's umbrella organization of Jewish community groups, said he welcomed Mitterand's decision.

"It is not logical that Celine serve as an example for a medal of honor," he said. "When the text is despicable, so is the writer."

Celine, who died in 1961, is considered the second most widely read author in France after Marcel Proust.

Journey to the End of the Night, which brought Celine into the literary limelight in the 1930s, is still considered one of the most significant books written about World War I.

With the rise of the Nazis, Celine published a number of anti-Semitic tropes, one of which, Trifles for Massacre sold some 500,000 copies.

"We will finish off the Jews or we will die because of the Jews," he wrote, claiming that "the Jews and only the Jews are pushing us to arms."

Not everyone welcomed Mitterand's decision to ban Celine from this year's honors. A number of academics called on Mitterand not to mix "Celine the literary genius" with "Celine the anti-Semitic bastard."

Sorbonne Prof. Henri Godard, one of France's leading experts on Celine, said the author should not be ignored, being one of France's most widely read novelists and one of the world's most widely translated writers.

Debate over separating the man from his work was also sparked in Israel when Journey to the End of the Night was translated into Hebrew in 1994 by Ilana Hammerman.

The publisher, Am Oved, was roundly criticized, including by then-Education Minister Amnon Rubinstein.

Celine fled France immediately after the Allied landing in Normandy. He was deported to Denmark but in 1951 he was allowed to return to France after receiving a pardon because he was wounded in World War I. Celine mourned the loss of his reputation until his dying day, although he never expressed remorse for his anti-Semitic writings.

Catholic writer Bernard Antony, while not overjoyed at the removal of Céline's name, feels there are others, far worse, whose names should have been given unquestioned priority:

Monsieur Serge Klarsfeld obtained from Minister of Culture Frédéric Mitterand the removal from the list of national celebrations the name of Louis-Ferdinand Céline, even though he was a great writer.

But is it possible then for us to tolerate streets and high-schools and middle-schools bearing the name of Louis Aragon?

Aragon was at times a sensitive poet and talented novelist. But he was for his entire life an atrocious lauder of all the Communist abominations and exterminations. A veritable Stalinist thug, honored for his servility, he was not just the eulogist of the gigantic assassin of the Kremlin, but he shouted it to the skies, and he exaggerated in the most vomitive manner imaginable.

While at the Lubyanka, headquarters of the Cheka (secret police) and its successive names - NKVD, G.P.U. (Guépéou), then the KGB, they tortured, "liquidated" hundreds of thousands of victims (the official Russian figure is five million assassinated), Aragon was writing: "I call on the terror from the depths of my lungs" (La Revolution Surréaliste, 1925).

Note: The word "Guépéou" is based on the letters G.P.U. I could not find an English equivalent. In English G.P.U. is left as is.

This Bolshevik thug confirmed this bloody aspiration: "The burst of rifle fire adds to the countryside a gaiety never before seen: it is engineers and doctors that they are executing." (Front Rouge - 1930)

While millions of Russians, Balts and Ukrainians would die in the Gulag, in famines and in en masse exterminations, this darling of our media, who denounced and condemned his former surrealist friends whom Stalin didn't like, didn't hesitate, O gentle poet, to reveal himself: "I sing of the Guépéou that is forming in France right now. I sing of the Guépéou necessary for France." The G.P.U. was necessary also for Nazi Germany! For at the moment of the honeymoon between Stalin and his comrade Hitler, the latter, on the invitation of the former, sent Gestapo leaders to be trained by the G.P.U.

Need I add that, satisfied with the exterminations of the "kulaks" and the peoples cursed by Stalin, Louis Aragon, 1957 winner of the Lenin prize for literature, did not bat an eye at the news of the elimination of Jewish doctors in the imaginary "doctors' plot" that started a great wave of anti-Semitic extermination interrupted only by the death of Stalin, called back by the Devil.

Note: Read about the Doctors' Plot here.

But while Céline was for a longtime a reprobate and an "auteur maudit", Aragon was wallowing in the luxury of palaces and honors.

With the total lack of shame characteristic of him, François Mitterand decorated Aragon with the Legion of Honor on November 19, 1981.

Considering that Louis Aragon used his talent for half a century in the service of Communism's crimes against humanity, we can at the very least hope that Frédéric Mitterand and the entire government ban Louis Aragon from the honors of street names and public buildings, and that no denials of his abject character create an obstacle to the necessary revision of the way in which he is described in school manuals.

Read more about Céline at Wikipedia.

Photo at the top from Le Monde blogs.

A Calendar of Events

I've been sitting here for days wondering which story I should work on. Whenever I don't post it is usually because there is a blizzard, a hurricane, or because I'm paralyzed from the mountains of articles staring at me. Maybe it's called "bloggers' block".

Here is an update on a story I did back in December concerning the EU desk calendar (also called an agenda) that is distributed to schools throughout the European Union and that is intended to inform children of cultural and historical events as well as some holidays. The calendar, it turned out, noted all major religious holidays except those of Christianity. An uproar from Catholics resulted in a revision of the calendar, in the form of an erratum, but future editions will contain no religious references at all (see update at the end). In his weekly newsletter Daoudal Hebdo #111, Yves Daoudal takes a closer look at what happened:

December 17, 2010 - The affair was revealed by the excellent reporter for the Daily Telegraph, Bruno Waterfield, a Euro-skeptic. It was then immediately reported in Italy by La Stampa, and in France by... a few blogs (including mine). Bruno Waterfield asked for the reaction of COMECE (Bishops Commission of the European Community) and received the following from Johanna Touzel:

"This is simply astonishing. Christmas and Easter are important holidays for hundreds of millions of Christians and Europeans. It is certainly a strange omission and I hope it wasn't intentional (...)"

Whether the European Commission was warned by COMECE or acted on its own, the fact remains that on December 23, John Dalli, the European Commissioner of Health and Consumer Protection (sic), wrote a letter to COMECE and to the president of the European Parliament in which he reviewed the purpose of the calendar:

(...) "Among the dates noted are those religious holidays that young Europeans cannot be familiar with. Considering that the agenda is not meant to be a complete calendar, it does not mention vacations and events which, like Christmas, are known by all in Europe and are part of the European heritage.

Young people's knowledge of Christian events in Europe was considered as a given: the Commission regrets that this inconsistency led to misunderstandings and promises immediate action."

Two days earlier John Dalli had published a communiqué at the website of his Commission. A brief ten-line text that ended with these words:

"I greatly regret this inconsistency and I promise immediate action."

But the interesting thing was the note at the bottom of the page:

"The agenda is the result of a partnership between the Directorate-General for Health and Consumers and nineteen other directorates-general, as well as the Economic and Social Commission."

But on December 17, a spokesman for the European Commission said to Bruno Waterfield that it had been an "error", adding that John Dalli was going to write to the schools and "acknowledge the error." Now, what emerges from John Dalli's remarks is that it was not in any way an "error", but that it was entirely deliberate and fully thought-out. The idea was to exclude Christian holidays on grounds that everyone knows them. An absurd motive, since unfortunately many European children do not know the Christian holidays. And if you read the text carefully, you will see that it is not the real motive. For John Dalli avoids mentioning the holidays of the other religions. He further beats around the bush by saying that in this agenda one can find an explanation of the difference between the European Council and the Council of Europe. But that isn't in the agenda strictly speaking, rather it is in the ninety pages of propaganda from the European Commission that opens the agenda (yes, ninety pages...) John Dalli does not explain, for example, why ramadan is there but not the Assumption, when it is clear that young Europeans today are more familiar with ramadan than with the Assumption. And there were twenty directorates-general who committed this "error". Twenty directorates-general out of the twenty-seven making up the European Commission. And there was no one in these directorates who noticed that they were pushing the envelope a bit too far and that there was risk of an outcry. They agreed unanimously to suppress the Christian holidays.

"I hope that this omission was not intentional," said the spokesman for COMECE. But if COMECE had done its job, it would have known that it was completely intentional.

In the days that followed the Polish and Italian governments protested the "indecent" agenda that was "contrary to the religious freedom and to the dignity of religions that are a foundation of the European Union." Nicolas Sarkozy's former minister of Housing, Christine Boutin, a practicing Catholic, declared on December 23:

" (...) How can one deny History to such a degree, and deny reality? Christianity played a fundamental role in the construction of Europe. It is the religion of many Europeans today. (...) Europe must become aware of its own Christian roots and of the public role of religion (...) "

Christine Boutin wrote to Laurent Wauquiez, the current minister of European Affairs, who waited three weeks before giving his reaction. Mme Boutin also launched a petition against the agenda, which is what may have triggered Wauquiez' response of January 12:

"In this agenda they talk about many things except our European identity. They talk about Gandhi, the discovery of the tomato in Peru or the Antarctica, but they do not speak about what European identity is. Europe is not a hollow shell, it is a community of values, of great people of History, of great dates. Let us acknowledge this identity. This initiative, well-meaning at the outset, is representative of a Europe that I do not like and that does not like itself: this Europe denies its Christian roots and puts a bashful cloth over what it is. A repressed identity is a vengeful identity. In this agenda many religious holidays are mentioned. This was not obligatory. Hindu holidays, Chinese holidays, Muslim holidays, but not one Christian holiday. What is this about? Are we ashamed of our Christian identity? Are we ashamed that the Europe of church towers was a component of our European identity?"

At this point, Yves Daoudal, all the while praising the speech, wonders about Laurent Wauquiez, who is a minister of a secular Republic that recognizes no religion (except of course Islam, through the creation of the French Council of the Muslim Religion by then Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy), and who is political adviser in Sarkozy's UMP party. The UMP is the descendant of the RPR, that placed Jacques Chirac in power, and Jacques Chirac is, in turn, the president who fought tooth and nail to prevent the slightest reference to Christian roots in the draft of the European Constitution, known also as the Lisbon Treaty.

Is Laurent Wauquiez schizophrenic? Or has he been ordered to make a discreet appeal to the Catholic voters? Or has the UMP secretly changed its mind on the subject? We search in vain for a mention of "our Christian identity" in the UMP documents. We search in vain as well in the speeches of Nicolas Sarkozy.

In his article Yves Daoudal also points out that the archbishop of Paris, André Vingt-Trois, did not protest to Laurent Wauquiez about the calendar until January 12, the day Wauquiez himself made his speech and the day the French media put the story in the headlines.

Below, Laurent Wauquiez. According to his biography, he decided to learn Arabic in 2000, and spent several months in Cairo. There, he met Soeur Emmanuelle and her association where he gave French lessons. (Soeur Emmanuelle who died in 2008 was known for her charity work in Egypt with underprivileged children. She was accorded Egyptian nationality in 1991 by Hosni Moubarak.)


Wauquiez participated in the committee that studied "laïcité" presided over by Bernard Stasi. This experience gave him the opportunity to contribute his knowledge of the Arab world and to approach the issue of integration in France, but also to deal with the question of "laïcité" in the schools. (Wikipedia)

Note: The Stasi Commission mentioned above executed the wishes of Nicolas Sarkozy who needed a way around the 1905 law in order to build the mosques that he wanted so much to build. The loophole they found was in the word "cultural". Since a mosque is a "cultural" edifice as well as a house of worship, they were able to justify State and local subsidies towards the construction. The same thing is happening at Ground Zero in N.Y. where they are calling the mosque a "cultural center."

Update: As I post, the most recent edition of Daoudal Hebdo #112 has the latest on the "Agenda Europa":

While it had been announced that future editions of the agenda would contain no religious references, the European Commission has now backed down and declares that the 2011-2012 edition will note the principal holidays, including the religious holidays celebrated in every member State of the EU.

This decision obviously stems from the fact that the Commission risked being attacked for not respecting religious freedom. Even Laurent Wauquiez, the minister of European Affairs, said that this "episode is an opportunity to remind everyone that no religious discrimination is tolerated within the European Union". To publish a European agenda that observes everything that happens in Europe to the exclusion of religious holidays was still an offense to religious freedom. The European Commission was therefore forced to back down.

Daoudal closes with the observation that the agenda remains largely a work of propaganda:

And in the middle of all that, there are two pages on "safe sex" that are basically propaganda for contraceptives. And in highlights, a piece of advice on the choice of lubricants, and this remark attributed to a girl in high-school: "Using contraceptives is restricting, but it's really important. There is no other way to protect oneself." (Well, there is one...)

I would say that it is more propaganda for promiscuity and that it puts the lives of young girls at risk for future health problems. It removes parental control from the picture, and endorses major decision-making for youngsters too immature to foresee the consequences of their acts.

I also think it's in bad taste to put Christian religious holidays in such a publication. The fact that the Commission changed its mind says a lot about the power of public opinion, but at the same time the change was not made in the spirit of the holidays that were at the core of the controversy.

Marine Le Pen Opposed to Gay Marriage

Marine Le Pen is still making news, and will continue to do so for the next 17 months. Here are snippets from a conversation she had on RTL radio with moderator Christophe Hondelatte:

"I am totally opposed" to gay marriage and "I think that only a minority are for it anyway."

The PaCS (civil union) "did not correspond to a need".

The new president of the FN criticized "this sort of proselytizing, gay pride with its parades which are, as a general rule, provocations against other people, notably Catholics".

"I find it scandalous that during the gay pride parades there are people who dress up as nuns and trample on the respect one should have with regard to other religions. And they only do it with regard to the Catholic religion anyway (...)" she declared.

Those who understand French can hear a lot more by going to RTL (link above) where there are audio programs of the interview. Among other things she says clearly that there should be a moratorium on all immigration. And she defends her father against the caricatures of him and the Front National that have been generated over the years by the media.

However, she has made some rather sweeping statements about the need to consider all Frenchmen as citizens, not as members of communities (this would have to include the ethnic French community), and about laïcité as a basic principle of the Republic. However, I'll have more on this in the coming days.

H/T: E-Deo

Requiem For France - Update

You may recall that back in December I posted a link to a song about France, composed by a loyal reader. At the time he did not want the song to become well-known or misunderstood, or trashed, and so he did not release the embed code. But because the video received several hundred views, he changed his mind about the embed code. Therefore, those interested can click here for the code. The comments posted at YouTube are especially moving.

A reminder that my original post has the English translation of the lyrics.

Pro-Life March in Paris

Today (Sunday, January 23), there was a major event for Catholics and others opposed to abortion. A "March for Life" was held in Paris, drawing about 40,000 participants. According to a report at Le Salon Beige, where the home page has numerous photos and comments, this is twice the number as last year. Among the politicians present were Bruno Gollnisch, Carl Lang (formerly of the Front National, now head of his own party), Xavier Lemoine, mayor of Montfermeil in the department of Seine-Saint-Denis, and Patrick Louis of the MPF (Mouvement Pour la France), the party still headed by Philippe de Villiers. Apparently Marine Le Pen was not there, but that is not surprising since she is not opposed to abortion; she has said, however, she would not reimburse the procedure and that she would initiate a program to increase the birthrate (presumably of ethnic Frenchmen. How she would do this is not clear.)

At 5:09 p.m., AFP issued this statement:

Several thousand people opposed to abortion began their march this afternoon (...). The marchers, including many families, departed from place de la République at 3:30 heading for place de l'Opéra, behind a banner proclaiming "United in Defense of Life". Many children held red and white balloons with the inscription "Marching for Life". (...). The participants had come from all over France, on the occasion of the 36th anniversary of the Veil Law that legalized abortion in France, a law they want abolished. Foreign delegations were also present.

Below, a scene of the crowd.


Below, Bruno Gollnisch. (Note that his presence obviously has a political motivation as well. The Front National has to appeal to as many Catholics as possible, but I am NOT implying he does not believe in what he is doing.)


By 6:02 p.m. AFP had issued the following:

Some 6,500 persons according to the police, 40,000 according to the organizers (...) This participation was twice that recorded in January 2010 (...) when 3,100 persons according to the police, and 20,000 according to the organizers had gathered.

It still isn't clear how many attended. All we know is that twice as many as last year were there. Le Salon Beige suggests that it was less than the double of last year, but many more than the official police estimates.

Sarkozy in "Germany"

Most of you have probably read this at an English-language source. Nicolas Sarkozy made a complete fool of himself while visiting Alsace which he mistook for Germany. He apparently caught the error right away, but many were not too happy about his latest faux pas. History has never been his strong point.

Below a map from The Daily Mail showing the contested regions following WWI.

The Front National Responds

My previous entry mentioned that some journalists attempting to get into the Tours convention hall had been molested. The Front National denies these charges. There are two communiqués posted at the FN website. Here is one that responds to accusations made on the television channel Canal Plus:

(...) The Front National protests against the remarks made by Monsieur Michaël Szames on the television show "Le Petit Journal" January 17, 2011. Monsieur Michaël Szames declared that "eight body guards from the Front National caught him, pulled him by the hood of his coat, molested him, punched him in the stomach and back, held his arm behind his back, broke his watch... and that there were insults of a racist nature and they said that he was a shitty journalist and that they were ready to knock all his teeth out".

The Front National affirms that Michaël Szames was not molested by its guards, that Monsieur Michaël Szames was not punched in the stomach or the back. Monsieur Michaël Szames was simply asked to leave the premises of the convention center in Tours where he did not belong. The Front National affirms, furthermore, that no one from its security personnel broke Monsieur Szames' watch or uttered racist insults. Finally, never was it said that he was a shitty journalist or that the Front National's guards were ready to knock his teeth out.

The Front National will demand similar rectifications whenever it is accused in untruthful circumstances, without prejudice to the legal proceedings it is undertaking separately.

Note: The above is difficult for me to translate because of its legal terminology. But I think it simply means that the communiqué and its demands will in no way lessen the importance of or take away from the lawsuits that are being initiated.

Also, a reminder that the main point of my previous entry was not who was barred from the convention, but who was allowed in.

Below, Marine Le Pen playing every politician's favorite game.

Journalists at the FN Convention

Here is some troubling news about the Front National. Novopress reports, from the original source Infos Bordeaux:

Even though several journalists from publications, such as Minute, that advocate the same political positions as the Front National were not authorized to cover the convention in Tours, and other journalists were banned entry and even molested, the right hand man of the imam of Bordeaux received an accreditation in good and due form! Camel Bechikh (above) was in fact covering this weekend's convention of the Front National in Tours for the bimonthly journal Flash, a journal described by Jean-Yves Camus as the "organ of anti-globalization of the extreme Right", and in which essayist Alain Soral, who as we all know is very concerned about the "Zionist" question", writes a column. The international political news is supervised by Christian Bouchet, a radical supporter of Marine Le Pen within the Front National, and another adversary of "Zionism".

But Camel Bechikh is not a "journalist" like the others. He's not a journalist at all. A close associate of Tareq Oubrou, imam of the Bordeaux mosque and author of Profession Imam (published by Albin Michel), Camel Bechikh is in charge of public relations for the CBSP (Center for Aid to the Palestinians), an association connected to the UOIF (Union of Islamic Organizations of France) and high on the official list of terrorist organizations in Canada and the United States (both countries blame the CBSP for financing Hamas).

Camel Bechikh, who is head of the Muslim Scouts of France in the Aquitaine region, was the key figure in the April 2009 conference in Bordeaux that brought together Alain Soral and imam Tareq Oubrou. (...)

Note: A reminder that Soral, a Marxist "philosopher" who claims to have rejected Marxism, was for a while the colleague of and adviser to Marine Le Pen within the Front National where he served on the central committee. He is also well-known for his anti-Israel position.

We should retain from this article that Marine Le Pen has perhaps not entirely broken off with Soral, even though they clashed at one point and he left the FN, and that if she intends to keep company with figures like Soral and the imam of Bordeaux (even indirectly through men like Bechikh) she needs some good advice ASAP.

"L'Etat, c'est Marine"

Much is being written about Marine Le Pen at the right-wing websites. Few of the reports I've read are unreservedly confident in her ability to lead the Front National as a party of tradition. Most recognize her qualities as a debater on television and her strong personality, but everyone seems to be waiting for her to let the mask fall and admit openly that she is ideologically a jacobin (meaning she is for centralized State control over everything including the regions with their separate identities, as was the French Revolution) and tolerant of Islam within the framework of "laïcité". Here is a short article from Novopress, the news agency of the Bloc Identitaire:

In her first speech as president of the Front National, Marine Le Pen launched into a veritable apology of the State, demanding a strong State ("un Etat fort"). Faced with financial markets and globalization, "the key is the State", she affirmed, adding: "France and the French people more than ever need a strong State." Lauding the "Republic that forged the nation" and enumerating "territorial, political, juridical and institutional unification and linguistic unification" the president of the Front National made references to Clovis, Henri IV, Bonaparte and even to the public schoolmasters of the Third Republic (known as "hussards noirs"). She denounced decentralization and hammered home the message that "The State has become the backbone of the France we love." Madame Le Pen even declared: "The State is one of the components of the soul of France."

Another Novopress article gives more excerpts from the speech:

In her first speech as president of the Front National, a speech that was intended as a preview of her presidential program, Marine Le Pen barely mentioned the question of immigration, which was until then the heart of the political combat of the FN. Not once does the word "immigrant" appear in her speech. The word "immigration" is used three times: in deploring that if Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Nicolas Sarkozy were the two Establishment candidates, the French people would have to choose "between immigration and immigration", and in her indignation over the "stifling and destructive stranglehold of Brussels" that leaves France no "margin for maneuver" in the matter of "immigration management."

So it seems that the new leadership of the Front National has no intention of stopping any new non-European immigration. Even less of initiating massive repatriations of immigrants to their homelands. Because of this rupture with the "foundations" of the Front National, priority will now be given to the fight against "Islamization" and "communitarianism" which, however, have always been treated in the traditional platform of the FN as being the consequences of massive immigration. Priority too to the struggle against globalization: Marine Le Pen is considering, as an example, nationalizing "those banks that are insensitive to ethical responsibilities."

Note: It is too soon to blame her. She has to be given a chance to prove herself. But her every word is being closely watched for signs that she will make of the Front National the Nationalist Left instead of the Nationalist Right.

Trial Update

Some of you may be wondering about the outcome of the trial against Eric Zemmour. Even though the proceedings came to an end last week, the decision of the judges will not be announced until mid-February. I will of course do a post on that when the time comes.

Trouble Already?

Marine Le Pen has not been president of the Front National two days, and already trouble is brewing.

The cofounder of the Front National, former Resistance fighter Roger Holeindre, a leading figure of the extreme Right for more than forty years, created an uproar when he announced to the Journal du Dimanche his intention to leave the party after the election of Marine Le Pen to the presidency:

The startled look on the faces of party members who had come to have him sign his latest book will change nothing. Behind the stand that he occupied on the ground floor of the Tours convention center, Roger Holeindre announced his departure from the Front National, the party that he, with Jean-Marie Le Pen, cofounded in 1972. The reason for this sudden defection: the election, not yet official, of Marine Le Pen to the presidency of the party of the extreme Right.

"Marine Le Pen in no way represents the values that I have always defended," he said in a loud voice and a sweep of the hand. Roger Holeindre, today 83, was one of the youngest Resistance fighters.

Shocked, as were many others in Tours, that the results of the election were "leaked" to the press twenty-four hours before the official announcement, the former deputy refuses to participate in a Front National that is "under the eyes of the media". "I don't need to be labeled old-fashioned, I have never been old-fashioned, or else that would mean that I've just been speaking like an idiot for fifty years," thunders this member of the political bureau of the FN, in reference to Marine Le Pen's plan to "un-demonize" the party.

A supporter of Bruno Gollnisch in the race for the position held by Jean-Marie Le Pen, Roger Holleindre, who represents the nationalist solidarity movement within the FN, feels that "the ideas I defend for France and Europe will still have to be defended under Marine Le Pen." And even if the former paratrooper is not urging anyone to cut and run ("I am not one to bite the hand that feeds me"), he has nonetheless bet on there being other defections from the ranks of the Front National.

For now, this announcement has had the effect of a bomb within the leadership of Le Pen's party. The treasurer of the party, Wallerand de Saint-Just, a supporter of Marine Le Pen, expressed his profound astonishment, and called on all those in Gollnisch's camp "not to sink into paranoia". A member of the political bureau and a close associate of Bruno Gollnisch, Bruno Subtil, taken by surprise, spoke of an "extremely grave and damaging decision for our party."

French readers can find thirty-eight comments, many of them favorable to Roger Holeindre, at Le Salon Beige.

Marine Le Pen Wins Presidency of the Front National

Today (Friday January 14), in the city of Tours, an election has determined the next president of the Front National. The voters were those officially registered with the party. Results are not final as I write, but all indications are that Marine Le Pen has defeated Bruno Gollnisch and will go on to become the party's presidential candidate in 2012. Here is an interview published on December 17 by Le Point in which Bruno Gollnisch tells his side of the story. He begins by acknowledging that he is lagging behind her in the polls:

"It's true that I have a certain number of handicaps. The support given by Jean-Marie Le Pen to his daughter is one. My under-representation in the media these past years is another."

The former vice-president of the party, who is winding down his campaign in his own fief of Lyons, explains how he tried to compensate for these handicaps by getting in closer contact with party members.

Supported by the most traditional elements of the party and by a part of the extreme-right-wing press, he criss-crossed France and held eighty public meetings before audiences that were not insignificant compared to those of Marine Le Pen.

He feels that the position of his rival, who has said she wants the party to be more accessible, is very "vague", especially since her comments on the Muslim "street prayers" when she seemed to draw inspiration from her father's outbursts.

Note: This is surprising. I would have thought Gollnisch would have seconded her in her remark about street prayers being comparable to an occupation. Note, however, that it is the author of the article that says it, not Gollnisch himself whose words are in quotes.

"The political rise and media success of Marine Le Pen over the past several years were characterized by a certain distancing from the Front National's traditional line, a strategy she now seems to have totally abandoned," he added.

Note: If she is acting more "traditional", he should be on her side, since he is considered a traditionalist. But since they are rivals, it is reasonable to assume they will find fault with each other. Her recent attempts to distance herself from the older party line, through an inclusiveness bordering on American-style liberalism, is however accurate.

"First they spoke of modernization, and ridding the party of its demonization and old-fashioned look, and I still don't know what all that means," he added.

At bottom, he feels he has a "more complete, more rooted cultural and spiritual" concept of the Nation than does Marine Le Pen.

He also noted differences in their views on the euro, since he does not agree with the idea of a radical departure from the euro, contrary to Marine Le Pen.

"Like her, I am very hostile to the European Community, but rather than leave, I would prefer that we try to re-negotiate the treaties and make room for cooperation on precise projects - cultural, scientific, infrastructure, etc... I'm a little more cautious on Europe than Marine who wants to get out right away."

The article points to their differences regarding the splinter groups that have broken away from the Front National: Gollnisch would like a gradual reconciliation, while she reproaches him for this. He says:

"She wants to bring all Frenchmen together and criticizes me for wanting to bring the various small groups together. But that is not what I want... "

He then explains his strategy to reach out to the various conservative leaders of smaller parties as well as to what he calls the "patriotic Left."

Bruno Gollnisch is the coordinator of the extreme-Right parliamentarians in the EU Parliament. This group includes the British, Hungarian, Flemish, French, Austrian and Bulgarian members. He expresses regret that he cannot sit with the deputies of Dutchman Geert Wilders.

"His colleagues refuse to have anything to do with us, no doubt out of fear of being demonized," he remarks ruefully.

Elsewhere, in an article published in Monde et Vie (link not available) last November, Gollnisch declared:

"I have a carnal conception of France that goes back to the alliance between the Gallo-Roman base of our people and the Francs who gave us our name. This alliance took place 1500 years ago at the baptism of Clovis in Reims and the unction of Saint Rémi, mystically the first coronation of Kings of France. (...) I think that France is a people, a territory, a language and an exceptional civilization, as much a tributary of Christianity as Japanese civilization is of Confucianism (...) Christian values are not limited to France, they are universal but they have given our civilization its grandeur (...)"

Update: As I post Marine Le Pen has won the election by two-thirds of the votes. She is now (to no one's surprise) officially president of the Front National and Jean-Marie Le Pen has at last stepped down. I would venture a guess that the one third of the votes that went to Gollnisch were from those who also have a "carnal conception of France" and who, implicitly, regard the origins and the monarchy as fundamental to French identity. But they could also be members who are suspicious of Marine's tendency to move left-ward. According to Le Monde, another bone of contention between the two was the issue of the presidential candidacy:

In early October, Gollnisch had launched the idea of a division of labor, urging the membership to elect him as president of the party, while Mme Le Pen would have been the presidential candidate. He intended to position himself as the candidate of the unity of the party (...) Marine Le Pen always rejected this idea of dividing the two titles. In her view, the presidency of the FN and the presidential candidacy were one and the same. For her, the internal election was comparable to a primary, and she also bet on the fact that in the minds of most party members she would make a better presidential candidate than Bruno Gollnisch.

Already, pollsters are saying she may win 17% of the vote in the first round of the presidential elections. If she doesn't mess up, this could grow to at least 20%.

The anti-Le Pen propaganda machines will soon be gearing up.

Eric Zemmour On Trial

An article at François Desouche reviews the story of journalist Eric Zemmour's comments about race and crime, a media event from March 2010 that led to a trial for defamation and racial discrimination. The trial is now in session.

The comment that may cost Zemmour some money, if not his personal freedom was:

"French immigrants are more closely monitored than others because most drug dealers are blacks or Arabs... It's a fact."

Another comment he had made earlier may also cost him:

"Employers have the right to refuse Arabs or blacks."

Le Monde posted the following:

SOS-Racism, an anti-racism association, was the first to initiate a lawsuit against the "polemicist".

Note: I have kept the word "polemicist" used by Le Monde, and placed it in quotes, because it does not define Zemmour properly. He simply presents a more realistic point of view, and ipso facto enters into a confrontation. A polemicist is defined and someone who aggressively creates controversy.

According to SOS-Racism, Eric Zemmour's remarks tend to "assimilate the origins of people with criminality," a type of discrimination that carries a criminal sanction. Among the other plaintiffs are MRAP, LICRA, UEJF and J'accuse. Eric Zemmour should be present. He is calling a number of witnesses including deputy Claude Goasguen, journalist Eric Naulleau and Robert Menard, the former general secretary of Reporters Without Borders.

Note: MRAP = Movement against Racism and for Friendship among Peoples; LICRA = International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism; UEJF = Union of Jewish Students of France.

Last March, in a long letter addressed to the president of LICRA, Eric Zemmour said he was sorry his remarks had upset some people, but he stood by them. Eric Zemmour had been supported by the general advocate of the Paris appeals court, Philippe Bilger, who in turn was summoned to explain himself to the Paris district attorney ("procureur général") (...) In a blog entry dated March 17, 2010, Philippe Bilger wrote: "All blacks and Arabs are not drug dealers, but many drug dealers are blacks or Arabs." He spoke of statistics that attempt "to cover up what is staring you right in the face" and of "censorship that forbids one to clearly broach such subjects."

Here again is the video (which I had posted last year) of Eric Zemmour making his comment about race and criminality. Click the link to last year's post for a transcript of the video - it is the last part of the article.



The trial against Eric Zemmour began Tuesday January 11 and will conclude Thursday January 13. François Desouche gives a summary of the first day:

Journalist Eric Zemmour (...) vigorously defended his position, insisting he was not a "provocateur" but an honest observer of reality.

"When you describe reality, you are criminalized," the journalist said regretfully, his jaws clenched and his tone combative.

"I do not provoke and I am for freedom of expression," declared Eric Zemmour, one of the most famous "polemicists" in France, who believes that anti-racist organizations do nothing except "criminalize words that do not bow down to political correctness."

"Reality does not exist for these gentlemen," he added, speaking of the organization leaders. "They have to take refuge inside the ideologies they created thirty years ago (...) Those who leave are treated as provocateurs at best, or as Nazis at worst."

Rue 89 reports another interesting aspect of the trial - a letter written by former Interior Minister Jean-Pierre Chevènement in defense of Eric Zemmour. The lawyer for SOS-Racism, Paul Klugman, saw to it that the letter could not be used as evidence because the author had not taken an oath before writing it. The key passage in the letter reads:

"All you have to do, as I have done, is to consult the listings of the DCS (Central Security Bureau) of the Ministry of the Interior, to find that more than 50% of reported crimes were the work of young people whose family name sounds African or Maghrebin."

The judge said to Zemmour:

"You are described by SOS-Racism as a provocateur, making unfavorable comments about homosexuals, immigrants and judges."

"No, I am not a provocateur," replied Zemmour. "I say what I think, believe and see." In short, he describes reality without taboos and thinks, as does the philosopher Clément Rosset, that it is "unbearable, but irremediable":

"My remarks are not inappropriate, they are brutal. But life, reality, is brutal." (..)

Later, he explained that anti-racism is the fig leaf of a Left that has submitted to globalization and the market economy and emphasized the lack of culture of the president of LICRA Alain Jakubowicz.

When the judge asked him about his remarks on race and crime he accepted full responsibility and said he did not understand why people reproach him for not mentioning the economic and social reasons that could explain the incidence of crime among immigrants. "It's a complex discussion. It could also be because of the family structures," he added.

According to Zemmour, to discriminate is to choose. "There is nothing infamous, we do it all the time." (...)

An Asian association, the JADF (Young Asians of France) has thrown their full support behind Eric Zemmour, as reported by Le Post:

The JADF considers that the anti-racist "associations" should instead revolt against the offenses and unacceptable insults, such as "f... France", and the discriminatory and violent behavior against certain religions.

These anti-racist "associations" showed no feelings toward the Chinese community of Paris. (...)

Mr. Zemmour is a scapegoat , a man who kept his freedom of speech and one cannot but respect him for that.

France gives her children, at least those who deserve it, the means to succeed without playing the pity and fear card.

The JADF fully supports Mr. Zemmour and hopes to demonstrate that one can perhaps have skin of a different color, be born somewhere other than France, love one's country, and still have an objective vision like that of Mr. Zemmour.

Killer Caught

The killer of the Vietnamese girl who was pushed down a staircase in the Paris subway on December 27 has been caught. His name is not available. Novopress has published several comments from readers of the daily Le Parisien:

The arrest this morning (Monday, January 10) of the alleged killer of Vy-Anh, the young girl thrown down a staircase in the Etienne Marcel subway station has aroused many reactions on the Internet. Notably at the Le Parisien website, where one reader, Pierre, writes:

"Bravo to the police. But... is this another one who will be given three years only to be released after two months... so he can better continue to destroy the lives of decent people!"

Another reader, Zonek, goes further:

"It isn't enough to arrest this man, if indeed he committed the homicide. They must also arrest his family and friends, who recognized him perfectly well from the photos that were published, but who said nothing to the police. They are guilty and must now take responsibility for their decisions. This is the only way to bring this collective cowardice to an end."

Another reader gives some advice:

"The corridors of the interchange at the Nation subway stop, lines 1, 2, 6, and 9, are infested with thieves. They can act with complete impunity because the surveillance cameras are not there. Be careful!"

It is especially important to be careful since about one hundred female pickpockets operating in the Paris subway have just been set free. This outpouring of reactions demonstrates the extent to which justice and security are two very important topics in the eyes of French people.

On December 28, 2010, Novopress had reported on the release of the girls:

Nicknamed the "little thieves", a hundred adolescent girls accused of pickpocketing in the Paris subway have all been released according to Le Parisien. They had been arrested by the police at the end of November. These delinquents worked for the Hamidovic clan - a group of Roma gypsies from Bosnia, implanted near Rome, Italy. One year of criminal activity netted four million euro for this mafia.

The girls made between 200 and 500 euro a day. Each week, Fehim Hamidovic would send his emissaries to France to collect the money, especially in Perpignan, a city particularly affected by immigration and nomadic crime. This network of gypsies could be responsible for 75% of pickpocket crimes in the Paris subway.

Le Parisien adds this bit of information:

The clan leaders recruited the girls from Bosnia-Herzegovina. They were then "trained" in France and had to fulfill a contract obligation of 300 euros per day per girl. If they did not make this amount, "they were beaten, burned with cigarettes and sometimes raped," according to investigators.

In the latest update from François Desouche, the killer was turned in to authorities by his girlfriend:

(...) the girlfriend of the suspect who was arrested Monday morning admitted that this man, a native of Cayenne, had confided in her and had confessed to pushing the victim to her death. He made the same revelations to a male friend.

The New Face of Quimper

The Socialist mayor of Quimper, Bernard Poignant, has chosen the photo above to illustrate his New Year's cards, the calendars offered to his co-workers, and publicity posters all over the city. Novopress reports:

The municipal blog Penhars Info finds the photo to be a great success:

"... during an official commemoration ceremony, a veteran, smiling, his chest laden with medals, seems to be drawing attention to his neighbor, a black French boy carrying with great seriousness two French flags. If there were background music it would have to be the Marseillaise." The photo is silent, but it "speaks volumes". No one could put it better.

Licensed to teach History, and leader of the French Socialists in the European Parliament, Bernard Poignant wished to affirm, in a very premeditated way, his conception of the identity of the city he runs: a very "trendy" city, but "patriotic" nonetheless, comfortable in the "diversity" and "living-together" of France. Eradicating in the process any reference to the Breton identity of Quimper, that he probably feels is too old-fashioned. (...)

Another article from the Breton version of Novopress denounces the forced multiculturalism and Jacobinism of the current French government. The photo below is of a check written by Socialist city councillor Ana Sohier that was refused by the recipient - the employment services - on grounds it was written in Breton. The attached note says "please write your checks in French". According to Novopress:

There is absolutely nothing in the laws that forbids writing checks in Breton. As a Socialist, Ana Sohier is probably not the one to complain about this when you realize the low opinion her jacobin friends have of Brittany and the Breton people. (...)


The article also condemns the poster above, and goes on to pledge its commitment to Breton identity:

We, the identitarians of Brittany, refuse this fatalism. We refuse to see the language of our people dragged through the mud by the jacobin authorities while these same authorities allow bilingual French-Arabic signs in their buildings.

We refuse to submit to a system that imposes a mixture of non-European cultures all the while eradicating local identities. (...)

We also urge the people of Brittany to contact the mayor of Quimper to express their total refusal of a multicultural French society that denies Breton identity.

Murder in the Paris Subway

On December 27 a young Vietnamese woman, Vy-Anh Nguyen, was killed in the Paris subway when a man pushed her down a staircase as he fled after trying to steal the cell phone of another female passenger.Vy-Anh lapsed into a coma and died a few hours later at the hospital. Her funeral was held Thursday, January 7 in Antony near Paris. The story was posted at Novopress and François Desouche, and later in Le Parisien, France-Soir, and other news sources. But it was thanks to Novopress that photos of the killer became known to the public. The publication of the photos resulted in an investigation of Novopress for violation of secrecy, since such photos are normally reserved for the authorities.

The following was posted by Novopress on December 29:

Thanks to the surveillance cameras in the subway, the face of the individual who killed a young woman on Monday December 27 in the Etienne Marcel subway station is now known.

A man "apparently of mixed blood, 20 years old, 175 centimeters tall, normal weight, slight beard growth", is how the regional transport police described him.

On December 29, Le Parisien wrote:

Vy-Anh was conscious at first, then began having convulsions. She was admitted to Henri-Mondor de Créteil hospital where an emergency operation was performed, but she died that evening from her injuries. The man who appears on the videos from the surveillance cameras is being sought. But his face is hardly visible and is very difficult to distinguish.

Note: The above statement is not true as you can see from the photos (above).

The next day, December 30, Le Parisien changed its tune as it became obvious that the photos could help capture the man and as readers expressed support for Novopress:

We have a very precise description thanks to the video cameras and evidence provided by private individuals" (this would refer to Novopress). According to statements from Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux (...) the investigation to capture the man responsible for the death of a young woman is progressing. (...) The minister revealed that the "smartphone effect" was responsible for much of the 39.3% increase in violent robberies committed during the first eleven months of the year (...)

Notice how Hortefeux blames the smartphone more than the criminals who steal the phone and possibly kill the owner. The rest of the article is devoted to his decision to warn people who take the subway not to use the phone. (He should perhaps warn them not to take the subway at all.)

"Just for the month of November 2010, the prefecture recorded 2813 objects stolen in the public transport system of Ile-de-France, including 1395 cell phones, 63.9% of which were smartphones," explained Michel Gaudin, prefect of police.

The reports vary somewhat on what it was he stole. Some say he tried to steal a purse, others say it was a smartphone. It was while he was in flight from this attempted robbery that he ran into the Vietnamese girl and shoved her down the staircase.

Roger Heurtebise, writing at Riposte Laïque, gives his view of this event, denouncing the Left for their silence following this latest killing. Here are the last three paragraphs of his article:

Are you aware, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Left, that the Vietnamese of France are mainly Buddhists, then Catholic, Taoist, or Confucianist, not to mention their ancestor cults that cross through all the other religions? And yet, not one of them occupies the streets illegally for weekly prayers, or holds you hostage in municipal buildings, or threatens to riot if you don't finance their religious buildings at taxpayers' expense, or demands special foods in your school cafeterias, or prayer rooms, or separate faucets, or slaughters sheep in bathtubs, or forces their daughters - most of whom have French first names - to cover themselves in potato sacks, or torches the cars and the schools of Frenchmen, or chases Jews from the Republic's schools, or defends stoning and polygamy, or threatens the life of the mayor of Paris on grounds his homosexuality is contrary to their dogma. (...)

Our country ought to render the homages to Vy-Anh Nguyen that are her due, for her worthy efforts at integration and assimilation, as well as those of her family and all immigrants who fight against Islamic and stone-age totalitarianism.

Novopress now reports that a gathering was held today (Sunday, January 9) at the Etienne Marcel subway station, in honor of the girl. The meeting was called by the Liaison Office of Associations and Free Vietnamese in France. A wreath was laid and participants were asked to bring a white rose, but no slogans or signs.


Vy-Anh was a brilliant student. She graduated from high-school at 15, majoring in Economics and Social Science. She then entered business school and graduated four years later. She worked as a press attachée and for cosmetic and perfume firms. Her father had arrived in France in 1963 to pursue his studies. Today he is a pharmacist, as is her sister, in the Paris region. (France-Soir)

Another View of Marine Le Pen

Not everyone among the traditionalist French writers I read is unreservedly enthusiastic about Marine Le Pen. Catholics who have suffered the consequences of the 1905 law establishing "laïcité" see in her just another proponent of that law, rather than a candidate that at the very least recognizes the wholeness of France - monarchy and republic.

Here are some thoughts from Catholic writer Yves Daoudal on comments made by Marine Le Pen on December 9, 2010 (not the December 10 interview I wrote about recently). This article is drawn from Daoudal's weekly newsletter #108, available to subscribers. He starts by noting the uproar generated by her remarks on the Occupation, then quotes another remark that went unnoticed:

"I would like it to be written into the Constitution that the Republic recognizes no community, in order to reenforce the constitutional principle of laïcité."

Note: The words "laïcité" and "laïcisme" appear in the text that follows. A reminder that the former refers specifically to the law of 1905 separating Church and State. While the public sphere (the State) became non-religious, religion was relegated to the private sphere, with some exceptions, such as State funding for certain Catholic schools. "Laïcisme", on the other hand, is the ideology of Church/State separation, and those who adhere to this ideology ("laïcistes") believe it should become the norm for everyone. Such people may elevate their belief to the level of a crusade.

Some people will point out that this is not the first time Marine Le Pen has said this. No question. She has said it in many interviews. That's what I mean - no one ever comments on it. This is not about "laïcité", but combative "laïcisme". "Laïcisme" is already affirmed in the first article of the Constitution: "The Republic recognizes no religion..." When she adds that the Republic recognizes no community, she is drawing the most extreme consequences from one of the main flaws in the Declaration of 1789 and the law of 1905.

A society is not an aggregate of individuals. A society consists of... communities. It is not the individual that is at the base of society, it is the family. The family is a community, the first of communities. And families are a part of all sorts of communities. There is a Christian community, and now there is a Muslim community. Not to recognize the Muslim community, in the name of "laïcisme", is to refuse to face reality. This "laïcisme" will be as impotent in fighting Islamization as it has been in forcing the submission of the Church to the State.

In order to fight Islamization we must look things in the eye. First, a Muslim community exists. Second, it is a foreign community, something that the fiction of laïcité does not allow to be recognized. Foreign, that is, to the soul of France. But we have noticed with the years and decades that the more it is composed of "French citizens" as defined by the Republic, the more it is alien (they go back to North Africa or to Turkey to find a wife, or they learn Arabic or Turkish, or they support soccer teams from their home countries - and this is the third or fourth generation on French soil).

The Islam of France does not exist. Algerian Islam, Moroccan Islam, Turkish Islam, etc... exist, and are under the control of the country of origin (when it isn't the Muslim brotherhood or the Tabligh, etc...) It is visible that the more the Muslim community is Muslim, the more it is alien to France. (...) In all societies, a foreign community does not have the same rights as the native communities.

Note: The Islam of France was Nicolas Sarkozy's misbegotten project. He believed that a special brand of Islam could be created just for France.

Third, Islam is not a religion, but a political-religious ideology of totalitarian aims (which makes the Muslim community a hyper-community). You will not be able to fight Islamization by refusing to face reality, but by seizing the problem posed by the Muslim community, by opening your eyes to what Islam really is, and by proving to Muslims the overwhelming revelation of the personal love of God, which is the motor of all Muslim conversions.

But this is something only Christians can do. They had better wake up. Fast.

Readers of French can find similar reactions at the blog of Bernard Antony. Two posts deal with criticism of Marine Le Pen.

In the first, he criticizes her for taking a stand on the height of minarets, rather than stating a greater and more momentous truth - that Islam is not just a religion but a totalitarian ideology. Like Yves Daoudal, he does not believe that laïcité will triumph over Islam:

It is intelligence, reason and the revelation to Muslims of the Truth of the God of Love.

In the second, he is unimpressed by her unwillingness to change the Veil law on abortion, especially since she equates a change in the law with being backward.

Catholics will no doubt be debating her merits for a long time. Whether or not she gets the Catholic vote remains to be seen. Liberal Catholics will find her too "extreme" and traditionalists, as we have seen, have no patience with her progressive views.