Scrupulously Destroying France

Here are excerpts, slightly edited, from an English-language article at France 24, about Interior Minister Manuel Valls' immigration policies:

French Interior Minister Manuel Valls wants to wipe the slate clean. At a Senate committee hearing Wednesday, Valls announced the new French administration’s intention to axe some of the controversial immigration procedures introduced under former French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Valls noted that he would like to see more objectivity in the process without necessarily making broad concessions on France’s immigration policy.

The "naturalization criteria surreptitiously introduced by my predecessor" (Claude Guéant) were like a "random, discriminatory obstacle course,” he told the Senate committee Wednesday.

During his presidency, Sarkozy made the integration of immigrants a key domestic issue, implementing several policy reviews during his five-year term before he was voted out of office in May 2012.

Note: We must not allow ourselves to be fooled by the media's attempts to paint Nicolas Sarkozy as a type of Benjamin Disraeli. Since he left office he is depicted as anti-immigration, anti-euthanasia, anti-crime, anti-Socialist, etc… Lest we forget that his "openness" allowed Socialists from the Mitterrand era to return to center-stage, that he allowed in two million immigrants, hinted often at general amnesty for illegals, watched while crime ran rampant, vacillated on all ethical issues, and famously proclaimed métissage a national duty. The Socialists in power today are like Sarkozy, but more so. (To put it differently, Sarkozy was just a tad less than Hollande.) In America, it is the same thing. Now that Bush has been replaced by Obama, people say "Oh don't you miss Bush?" Well, no, I don't.

Until 2010, naturalization decisions for immigrants across France were made at a central office in the western city of Nantes, making it a fairly straightforward administrative procedure.

But after the previous administration transferred the responsibility for that process from the Nantes office to local prefectures, naturalization decisions were made at the discretion of each jurisdiction. As a result, between 2010 and 2011, the number of naturalizations dropped from 94, 573 to 66, 273.

"Earlier, naturalization was a gateway to integration. Today, the logic is completely reversed. Naturalization has become a certificate of good conduct," wrote immigration specialist Catherine de Wenden in the left-leaning French daily, Libération, in May 2012.

Note: What she is saying is that she opposes any attempt to make naturalization something you earn. Instead, it should just be given to you, so you can integrate, and make your demands on European society more freely. This woman is similar to Cecilia Malmström, the EU Interior Commissioner. Two peas out of the same pod, or as I like to say "two pods out of the same pee."

High on the list of procedures Valls intends to axe is the test of French culture and history. A new decree, published in January 2012, which comes into effect July 1, officially scraps the culture and history test.

The old test, which was for immigrants with primary school level education, featured multiple choice questions such as, “Whom do you associate with the Arc de Triomphe? a) Napoleon b) General de Gaulle c) Julius Caesar?" Another question asked candidates to select the date for the abolition of slavery - from a choice of 1848, 1918 or 1968.

(…)

According to Valls, the previous administration’s "deliberate policy to exclude deserving people” from the process has resulted in a "free fall” in naturalisations.

(…)

"The challenge of immigration is to ensure that naturalisation is no longer seen, or perceived, as the end of an obstacle course, but as a process of integration,” he said.

The new procedures were welcomed by France Terre d'Asile, a Paris-based immigrant rights group. "It’s a step in the right direction, but we need more information and details,” said Matthew Tardis, head of the organization, in an interview with FRANCE 24. “We need to limit the arbitrary nature of naturalization procedures where local prefectures hold discretionary powers. The law must be the same for all. We need a clear framework."

It’s a sentiment echoed by Eduardo Rhian Cypel, a Socialist parliamentarian and spokesman for France Terre d'Asile. “We need objective criteria. These are conventional criteria in the French Republic: residency in the country, for how many years, do you have a job, do you have children who are in school? These new rules will be much simpler,” said the Brazilian-born politician, who is himself a naturalized French citizen. “A strong France is a France that is capable of accepting newcomers to the national community."

Yes. A strong body is one capable of accepting E-coli, botulism, rattlesnake poison and potassium cyanide into its bloodstream. How strong that body will be! How enriched!

Besides the above edifying statements, Valls also said, to a French Senate committee:

"I will scrupulously preserve the Schengen Space agreement."

"I will scrupulously continue to destroy France as my predecessors have done."

"I firmly refuse any unilateral closing of the borders…"

Steeve Briois, general secretary of the Front National reacts to Manuel Valls' potential reforms:

Manuel Valls announcement of his intent to modify the naturalization criteria sounds like publicity for the sale of French nationality.

Manuel Valls fantasizes about a model that has already been put to the test, that made nationality almost an automatic acquisition and that has led to the economic situation and identitarian catastrophe that we are now experiencing.

Valls is wrong on several points:

He claims that integration is possible and beneficial. We insist that this is impossible when French ID cards are distributed with assembly-line speed: only assimilation of a controlled number of individuals is viable in a country that claims to want its immigrants to become full-fledged Frenchmen.

He believes Claude Guéant turned naturalization into an "obstacle course." This is totally false, he turned it into a 100-meter sprint!

(We) perceive Valls' intentions as the exact opposite of what needs to be done. First, it is imperative to leave the Schengen Space and recover our sovereignty and the control of our borders.

And it is time to open a real debate on immigration and on naturalization reform: the French people must be able to decide who can become their fellow-citizens, and how this is to be done!

Only the Front National is clear and unequivocal on these subjects. The UMP cannot puff up with pride: they were as much zealots as Valls is today.