Mélenchon: In Praise of "Métissage"

Moroccan-born Communist Jean-Luc Mélenchon has emerged as the "third man" in this presidential campaign, pushing François Bayrou out of the picture. As for Marine Le Pen, she is unique, she stands apart, and I am not counting her as the "third man" or "third woman" or third anything.

In the event she makes it to the second round, and faces François Hollande in the May 6 Armageddon, she will also have to contend with the followers of Mélenchon, who will most likely cast their votes for Hollande.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon has uttered atrocities, such as "Communism does not have blood on its hands". Recently on a trip to Marseille, he sang the praises of Nicolas Sarkozy's pet project for the destruction of the ethnic French population: "métissage": "miscegenation".

François Desouche reports, based on Le Figaro:

The potential third man of the election launched into an ode to the Mediterranean, "the mother of us all", saying that "Marseille is the most French city of the Republic". The native of Tangiers, Morocco, stressed that "2600 years ago a woman chose to take as her husband an immigrant who disembarked from a boat. He was Greek, and from this union Marseille was born."

"'Métissage' is our great fortune," proclaimed the European deputy, to the ululations of the crowd. He then praised the "Arabs and Berbers" who brought to Europe "science, mathematics and medicine" in the days when "obscurantism discarded the human spirit." Rejecting "the morbid paranoid idea of a clash of civilizations", he expressed his thoughts to the Maghrebins, "who liberated our soil from the Nazis". "The peoples of the Maghreb are our brothers and sisters" and there is "no future for France without them", he said, interrupted by cries of "all together, all together!"

He lashed out at Nicolas Sarkozy who, during his visits to Marseille, "spoke exclusively of the security that he is incapable of assuring," and to the "extremist parties of hatred who accuse on the basis of religion." "Leave us in peace!" "France is not a Western nation doomed to follow the tank of the United States of America," but "a universalist nation". "We want to make of the Mediterranean a zone of peace," he said. He also hopes for the departure of the "40 warships of the United States of America" that are stationed in the area, and the "end of the absurd politics of the European Union."

Note: It's hard to know what to say. That such a person actually gained momentum during this campaign is testimony to how bad the situation really is. Regarding the "absurd" EU politics, the French Communist Party is theoretically anti-EU. However, Mélenchon's voters would no doubt vote for Hollande, at least most of them. A few might follow Marine Le Pen, but does she want such people?

The 40 war ships refers to the Sixth Fleet of the United States Navy.

As for the couple who founded Marseille, here is Wikipedia:

Marseille, which can be called the oldest city in France, was founded in 600 BC by Greeks from Phocaea as a trading port under the name Μασσαλία (Massalia). The connection between Μασσαλία and the Phoceans is mentioned in Book I, 13 of the History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides. The precise circumstances and date of founding remain obscure, but nevertheless a legend survives. Protis, while exploring for a new trading outpost or emporion for Phocaea, discovered the Mediterranean cove of the Lacydon, fed by a freshwater stream and protected by two rocky promontories. Protis was invited inland to a banquet held by the chief of the local Ligurian tribe for suitors seeking the hand of his daughter Gyptis in marriage. At the end of the banquet, Gyptis presented the ceremonial cup of wine to Protis, indicating her unequivocal choice. Following their marriage, they moved to the hill just to the north of the Lacydon; and from this settlement grew Massalia.