To French readers against halal...

Read this article from Riposte Laïque and do as they suggest.

To Americans who bought their Easter lamb from Costco, read this from 1389 blog:

Next time, go to your local farmers' market.

No matter who is elected on May 6, the fight against halal will go on.

The ad above shows halal "bacon" and "chorizo". I checked the ingredients and found that these products are made with beef and chicken.

Feminists for François

The feminists are voting for François Hollande. It makes sense. Unlike some explanations I've read recently on why voting for Sarko is good, better, best, less bad, least worst, or horrendous but necessary, the idea of family-destructive, civilization-destructive left-wing women voting for a destructive Socialist male makes perfectly good sense. Their manifesto is posted at the destructive left-wing Libération. Here are excerpts:

We are feminists. On May 6 we will vote for the united Left, we will vote for François Hollande.

We will vote for the Left because it is our political family. Its history, its motor, its identity, is to place the general interest before private interests, reason above beliefs or prejudices, to push back oppression and to construct a society where domination of all sorts will no longer have a place. The Left is an intrinsic ally of the struggle of women for their liberation because its goal is the emancipation of each individual.

During these past five years, the social welfare connection has been weakened, inequalities have developed. Women have paid a steep price for the liberal measures implemented by Nicolas Sarkozy: pension reform, closing of abortion centers, decreased parity, increased job insecurity, and feminization of poverty… It is time to change our politics, for women and for the whole society.

(…)

The coming to power of the Left is an important condition for equality between women and men. But we also know that the ages-old mechanisms of domination, of the invisibility of women, and of the resistance to their emancipation and their liberation, are powerful. The candidate of the Left will have to fight them. We are counting on him. We will be there to remind him of his commitment, and to support him when he fights the patriarchy, and to give him a push if the old demons get the best of him.

Did you hear that, François? No sleeping on the job.

François Hollande's promise to reestablish a Ministry of Women's Rights, in a parity-based government, is a major commitment. This ministry, working with feminist associations, will be a determining political tool in reducing inequalities and inventing a different society.

Note: I like their honesty. They state openly that their goal is to redefine humanity and to create a completely new world. Nothing less. What God created they will destroy, not because it isn't good enough for them, but because it is too good for them. Of course they don't say it quite that way, since they are not consciously aware that they are destructive. And then again, maybe they are...

We affirm the profoundly political dimension of feminism. We await a questioning of this sex-based organization of society that creates and perpetuates intolerable inequalities between women and men. To vote for the Left is to refuse the assignation of pre-established roles. It is to bank on reason and the capacity of every woman and man to extricate him(her)self from his(her) condition to become master of his(her) life. To vote for the Left is to bank on a new world, in which women's rights will go from textbook to reality.

Note: "Master of his life", i.e., man is the highest power.

We call on all women and men who want women's rights back on the road to progress to unite in a vote for the Left, and to vote for François Hollande.

Note: Of course, the liberation and emancipation of everybody enslaved in a human body is the reason why the feminists support Islam. Think of how free we'll all be under the Caliphate.

Below, the intrepid one who will liberate us from the chains of oppression and the artificial roles assigned to us by society.

Why they did not vote for Marine...

In order to understand this post a few reminders are in order. In 1998 Bruno Mégret broke away from the Front National, after prolonged disagreement with then party chairman Jean-Marie Le Pen, and formed his own party, the MNR (Mouvement National Républicain). Naturally, some bitterness remained when it came time, on April 22, to vote for Marine Le Pen, notwithstanding her efforts to revamp the party. The MNR had in fact supported Catholic candidate Carl Lang of the PDF (another break-way party from the FN), but Lang did not succeed in getting the 500 signatures so MNR members had to choose between Marine or someone else. The party leaders did not tell its members to vote for Marine.

Now, the general secretary of the MNR, Hubert Savon, urges voters to defeat the Left, by voting for Nicolas Sarkozy. Part of his statement is posted at Le Salon Beige:

(…) There is indeed a great risk that the Socialist candidate will win. The election of Monsieur Hollande to the presidency of the Republic would be a catastrophe for our country. Within three months, we would have immigrants with the vote, and homosexual marriage and adoption. With Hollande there would be a reinforcement of the migratory wave, a consolidation of Islam, legalization of undocumented aliens and affirmative action. It would also mean, on the economic and social levels, more revenue taxes, an increase in the public burden of taxes and expenses that would again start to explode, deepening even more the deficits and increasing our country's debt, to the point of being unsustainable. It would be a forced march to bankruptcy such as Spain and Greece are now experiencing. With Hollande, it would be the return of Martine Aubry, Jack Lang, Harlem Désir, and a bit later, why not? of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Note: I must interrupt Hubert Savon here. As someone who has written a lot about Sarkozy's five years, I must remind him that Sarkozy hired, heeded, or assisted, among other idiots, Jacques Attali, Jack Lang, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Fadela Amara, Rachida Dati, Eric Besson, Martin Hirsch, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Simone Veil, Alain Juppé (the friend of the Muslim Brotherhood of Bordeaux), Pierre Lelouche, Bernard Kouchner, etc… That he lavishly entertained Moammar Qadhafi, which was bad enough, then had him replaced by Islamists with their jihadist goals; that he groveled before the American president at the precise moment when America veered wildly to the left in the person of Barack Hussein Obama; that Carla Bruni-Sarkozy expressed regrets that France did not have a black president; that Sarkozy committed his country to a policy of racially-mixed marriages and relationships, telling his people in December 2008 that they had to change or they were finished, and justifying this on grounds that "in-breeding" leads to death; that Sarkozy's Interior Ministers sent orders to the police not to harm Muslim and black offenders; that his intelligence agents knew about the threat posed by Mohamed Merah; that Sarkozy created Muslim associations, promoted the building of mosques, and ignored all warnings about halal food; that his ministers in fact enjoy halal food with their Muslim overlords every ramadan; that he brought in more immigrants than previous Socialist administrations; that he introduced "gender studies" in the schools. Finally that Nicolas Sarkozy, despite his promise not to contravene the wishes of the people, pushed France into the EU, making certain, through coercive tactics, that other countries, such as Ireland, got on board the Lisbon Treaty, whether they wanted to or not. So now, because Hollande is worse, the French people must vote for this man who betrayed them at every turn, this bi-polar manipulator who oscillates between visible hyper-activity that leads nowhere and invisible demons that remind him of his failures.

Choose the lesser of the evils. That is why we must block the Left, and vote, and tell others to vote for the other candidate. True, we have many reasons for being dissatisfied with Sarkozy (sic). He did not keep all the promises he made in 2007. Many of the good decisions he made became reduced to small measures, purely symbolic, that did not change things very much. Some of his actions were even completely contrary to our own vision, as for example opening up his government to the Left. True, Sarkozy is not our candidate. But he is the only one left to face Hollande and despite his defects, he is very preferable to the Socialist candidate. Even more so because during the campaign, the incumbent president developed themes dear to us such as protectionism at the European level, the need for security, the defense of our identity and our borders, firmness in our dealings with Islam.

Note: Not only did Marine Le Pen's platform revolve around the above-named themes, but these have been the basic principles of the Front National since its inception. The MNR and the FN are, ideologically speaking, brothers. I believe that Marine Le Pen and her father regarded all who broke away from the FN as traitors, with no reconciliation possible. Not being privy to the inner quarrels, I don't know if one or the other bears more blame for this permanent hostility. At any rate the MNR is not a large bloc of voters, and for all we know, they did vote for her.

Of course we can be sure that once elected he will not put into practice the totality of his fancy words. Perhaps, but it is better to have a president that speaks well and acts less well, than a president that speaks badly and acts badly.

Note: Yes, but it's even better to have a president who speaks well, acts well, and attempts to save the country from utter perdition, isn't it? Potentially, you had one in the first round. Too late now…

As usual, Le Salon Beige readers engage in an interesting polemic. Here is a tiny sample:

- The MNR would be more credible if, in the first round, it had called for a vote for the lesser evil - Marine Le Pen - since that is the theory in the second round. Of course there is a quarrel between the FN and the MNR, but if we must hold our noses and vote for Sarkozy, he should have recommended the same nasal exercise in the first round. These lesser evils, that have only one purpose, like a throw-away kleenex, and decreed for subjective reasons, according to the hatreds on case by case basis, hardly possess coherency or demonstrable logic.

- A surprising situation all around. Nationalist voters who did not vote for Marine will now vote for Sarkozy. But it's logical: in both cases it is a matter of blocking the Left. As philosopher Philippe Nemo said last week, he did not vote for Marine Le Pen because her campaign was leftist. In a way, Marine Le Pen accomplished the mission entrusted to her by the System: she demobilized and stirred up the nationalists. For the first time in my life, having abstained in the first round in order not to vote for the Le Pen girl, I'm voting in the second round for the "Right" in order to prevent the real revolutionary Left from taking power. As I said, it's a strange situation for everybody!

It certainly is strange. Here I thought the nationalists and the Catholics would bend just a bit in the first round and vote for Marine, with her flaws and shortcomings, to prevent Sarkozy from returning. But they'd rather have Sarko than Marine! Crazy.

Policeman charged with manslaughter in killing of serial thief, mugger, burglar, hostage-taker, maniac...

Thanks to a reader's intervention, I read a letter from the Institut pour la Justice, an association for victims' rights that works to prevent crime,  support the police, and monitor court decisions. The letter is addressed to the police and others who support the Institut.

Last Sunday (April 22) Amine Bentounsi (above), a 29-year-old multiple recidivist and resident of the city of Meaux in Seine-Saint-Denis was killed by what seems to have been a bullet that ricocheted and hit him in the back.

The policeman who shot Amine Bentounsi while he was trying to escape has been indicted for voluntary manslaughter, and suspended from his duties. He risks losing half his salary.

The Institut pour la Justice offers a portrait of Bentounsi, originally published in Le Parisien on April 27:

At the age of thirteen, Amine Bentounsi was the youngest prisoner of France, after committing multiple thefts with violence. His life has been a succession of prison terms. In September 1994, our paper ran the headline "The terror of the neighborhood is only twelve". He had, by then, already burglarized the OPAC headquarters, stolen cars, attacked two employees of a social center, beaten a female neighbor with a car jack in order to steal her tape recorder. (…)

Note: OPAC is a national subsidized housing agency.

"He was uncontrollable," recalled a counselor. (…) "Once he stole a colleague's scooter and went berserk when we went to get it back." A neighborhood teacher recalled that Amine had been sent back to Algeria, to his grandmother, to calm his temper: "He came back after burning down his house. His parents were never able to set him on the right path."

When he was nineteen Amine climbed up the façade of the Bleuet building in Collinet with a rope, to break into the OPAC headquarters. (…) Criminal court banned him for ten years from Meaux and gave him four months in prison. A few months later, in October 2001, he participated in a spectacular hold-up of the Collinet post office, that ended with a shoot-out against the police, as passers-by watched (…)

In August 2005 he and two accomplices held up the Champion store in Saint-Pauthus, and took employees as hostages. He would receive his most severe sentence: ten years in solitary confinement, handed down in 2007.

It was this ultra-dangerous individual who found himself face to face with the police, a loaded revolver in his hand.

Note: No one thought to condemn the judge who let him out before the ten years were up.

Amine Bentounsi apparently hid between two cars before pointing a 35- caliber revolver in the direction of the policeman, who said he used his weapon four times in a situation of legitimate defense. The victim's weapon was recovered fully loaded.

And yet, a judge decided to indict him for voluntary manslaughter.

Early reports indicate that the bullet ricocheted, and that is why the criminal was shot in the back. The policeman would never had shot him in the back, according to his lawyer.

The rest of the letter from the Institut pour la Justice is devoted to a brief history of crime and punishment in France over the past three or four years. Then politics and the election enter the picture, and we have a clear indication that the Institut prefers Nicolas Sarkozy. François Hollande has promised to repeal two laws passed in 2007 and 2008, when Rachida Dati was Minister of Justice:

- The law establishing a minimum sentence for multi-recidivists.

- The law allowing for an extended sentence, after the criminal has served his appointed time. This law is to protect society from extremely dangerous criminals, who are still a threat, even though their prison time has expired.

(Note: When these laws were passed they were something of a joke, because they had a minimal effect and did not address the needs of a crime-ridden country and its dysfunctional justice system.)

The Institut informs us however, that these two innocuous laws are regarded as "ignominious" by the union of magistrates, a union that is very small but powerful, and of course pro-Hollande.

In addition to Hollande's promise to repeal two laws, we also learn that Nicolas Sarkozy has committed himself to two measures deemed by the magistrates' union as "populist":

- the construction of 24,000 new spaces in the prisons

- the possibility for victims to appeal verdicts (a right reserved today only for the convicted and the prosecution).

The letter concludes with a plea to vote on May 6 in full consciousness of the situation. And adds:

That judges prosecute policemen in court whenever they use their firearm, even in self-defense, is not "only" a scandalous injustice to them, it is also a grave threat to you: it encourages other police to close their eyes, or to arrive too late, when they are called to intervene in a crime. This is not paranoia. On October 14, a young policewoman was killed by a lunatic with a sword in Bourges. At the time, her colleagues did not know how to react. They did not dare take out their guns.

You can read the whole letter here.

Here is one account from Le Parisien.

Both candidates are playing it safe. Nicolas Sarkozy has said:

"A presumption of legitimate self-defense…"

François Hollande:

"No salary reduction, so long as he has not been judged…"

Below, the French police demonstrate in support of their colleague.

BHL: A Disgrace to France

Caroline Alamachère of Riposte Laïque excoriates the smug, evil Bernard-Henri Lévy:

This interval between rounds is most entertaining. Hollande, who seems to be engendering doubts that he really wants to be president, has promised us that foreigners will have the right to vote by 2013. Apparently the French vote alone is not enough for him. And it's not for nothing that 700 imams have endorsed him. They know well where their interest lies. And it's reciprocal, for if Hollande and his henchmen win there will be a celebration of Islamism every day.

The idea of Frenchmen sovereign in their own country is over. The great clearance sale has begun, as they say in Lille.

Note: The city of Lille is run by mayor Martine Aubry, a committed Socialist-Islamist, and a political climber. François Hollande has said she will be his Prime Minister.

A glimpse of what awaits us is already visible in the 3rd arrondissement of Marseille with this fraternal scribble executed on the evening of the first round. It proves that some already understood the importance of a victory with Hollandaise sauce.

Note: Below the grafitti reads: 

"French get out!" 

It serves the French right. That'll teach them to be consanguine, depressed and xenophobic. Without flinching, Socialist spokesman Benoît Hamon has just asked explicitly that the xenophobes vote for Hollande on May 6. Yes, sir, they canvas far and wide at the PS. Every vote counts.

Across the Atlantic our reputation has just been happily ruined thanks to the inveterate maliciousness of the worst philosopher France has ever nurtured. On CNN the very rich Bernard-Henri Lévy has deplored the nauseating, decidedly tenacious xenophobia of the French. The man who had already declared in 1985: "Of course, we are resolutely cosmopolitan. Of course, anything that is French soil, French country dances, rural bagpipes, in short, anything Frenchy or jingoistic is alien to us, even odious," he again proclaimed, this time with the addition of the supreme insult of "crypto-fascist". (See video clip above.)

On CNN, BHL speaks of the 18% of the French who voted for Marine Le Pen and those older people "from the darkest hours of our History"… 

Note: In the video clip he disdainfully repeats the phrase "old people" as if they are dirt. To him, the dandy, they are.

Ladies and Gentlemen, if you are part of this "one Frenchman out of five", and you vacation in the United States, you can expect to to be considered as former Nazis thanks to this phony philosopher.

To refuse sharia in France, to refuse to allow individuals who are not integrated into society to attack, rape and kill, and to send this message by means of the vote - the most democratic way - is then for this inept buffoon nothing less than the expression of Nazism! It takes nerve!

His hatred of the French blinds him beyond the ridicule that we all know does not kill. He's living proof.

(…)

The man who made himself even more ridiculous through his Libyan fantasies, (…) says not a word about the systematic murders of blacks punished for their opposition to sharia in this Libya that he was glad to offer to the Islamists responsible for this monstrous operation. The black man in Muslim territory becomes once again the "animal" he has always been in Islam. (…) And BHL never ceases glorifying this sinister return to Koranic sources. The Arab Spring? What a joke.

Note: A reminder that Lévy was Nicolas Sarkozy's adviser on the disastrous French intervention in Libya that resulted in an Islamist government. The French have done the same thing more recently in Mali.

On a foreign television program, this sinister buffoon dares shamelessly to treat the French people as xenophobes because they refuse to allow a dogma based on racism to be implanted in their country. Let him come say it to us in person, if he has the coj…

The article closes with a reference to Lévy's lumber company in West Africa (Ivory Coast, Gabon and Cameroon) that he ran in the 1990's. It seems the natives worked in:

(…) conditions of semi-slavery, deprived of drinking water and medicine, lodged in niches without air, and poorly paid (…)

Below, a photo of the narcissistic philosopher looking a bit like a mad scientist. A journalist somewhere coined a phrase that has been wrongly attributed to BHL, although it suits him well:

"God is dead, but my hair is perfect."

The World Denounces Marine Le Pen

Read this horrible article:

Here is the last paragraph:

The political party currently fronted by a seemingly charming 43 year old blonde may have stolen the limelight of the first round of the 2012 French elections with the highest vote count for the Front National in French electoral history, after 18.2 per cent of the French presidential ballots have been counted, but this should be seen by the world as a punch in the eye. This subtle sabotage has gone a step too far by promoting racism in a supposedly civilised world, which is simply unacceptable. The Front National is trying to spray it zeitgeist internationally. Being racist, fascist, xenophobic, or anti-Semitic might sound trendy in France at the moment, but a common will should prevent this campaign of global discrimination from destroying world peace and democracy.

A reader sent these links to other articles denigrating and condemning Marine Le Pen and the Front National:

Spiegel

Telegraph

The Local

An Open Letter from Marine Le Pen to François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy

Here is a condensed version of the letter posted at Nations Presse:

Gentlemen, a little respect!

Six million four hundred thousand of our fellow citizens chose to vote for me in the first round, after a campaign that began more than a year ago.

I presented my platform in its entirety as early as November. Unlike others, I did not want to take my voters by surprise the eve of the election.

The French people were thus able to understand my proposals that have provided the basis for many debates: intelligent protectionism, re-industrialization, monetary freedom, reconstruction of public services, a stop to immigration, national priority, defense of laïcité, to name only a few.

Unfortunately today your campaign speeches have been very disrespectful of my voters. And I cannot allow the campaign between the two rounds to unfold without addressing you and urging you to stop the insults and the disdain.

(…)

It is inadmissible to say that my voters did not want me to get to Elysée Palace. A vote for me is not a "cry", or a "crisis" vote, or a vote of "suffering" or "despair" as people are saying. It is even less a vote of the "extreme right" or of "xenophobia". I cannot tolerate seeing their choice reduced to a thoughtless act or motivated by bad feelings.

The French people are perfectly sovereign. They are the only sovereign recognized by the Republic. All the voters ought to be respected. (…)

No one can pierce the secrets of the voting booth, or reach the soul of the voter, but the inquiries and analyses, the campaign that I ran and the innumerable accounts that have reached me, all indicate that the vote in my favor was a thought-out, constructed vote, a vote of hope, of support, a genuine vote of acceptance of the new path and proposals that I am offering France. Yet you deny the sincerity of my voters and their ability to think or to have a personal and well-founded idea regarding the future of their country.

When you insult my voters in this way, you persist in the conduct of the arrogant disdainful elite I fought against during this campaign. Haven't you understood anything about the growing rejection by our people of these aristocratic attitudes, full of disdain, that the French can no longer put up with? (…)

Gentlemen, Candidates, you have a few days left to campaign, and I ask you, in the name of democracy and of the grandeur of the French people, to show some respect.

Nothing will be as it was, millions of Frenchmen have raised their heads.

There is, perhaps, still time for you to realize this.

Marine Le Pen

Note: What exactly were the insults hurled at the voters of the FN? According to L'Express, the spokesman for the Socialist Party Benoît Hamon stated that a part of the FN's electorate was "xenophobic". Interior Minister Claude Guéant called Marine Le Pen's platform "national socialist", i.e., Nazi. Foreign Minister Alain Juppé constantly called the FN "xenophobic, racist and antisemite".

More Women Vote FN

As usual there is an embarrassment of riches at the French websites. The home page of Nations Presse has a steady stream of information on the activities of Marine Le Pen and the Front National. Here is a 2'37" video on the role of women in the FN, including Marine's niece Marion Maréchal Le Pen. The discussion centers on the legislative elections in which Marion Le Pen will represent the city of Carpentras. Other female candidates are also interviewed:

- Anchor: Since Marine Le Pen took over the party, the Front National has been receiving support notably from a new generation. You will see the third generation of the Le Pen family is reporting for duty in this election

- Narrator: Sunday night among those celebrating Marine Le Pen's showing, there was a young girl who bore a family resemblance: Marion Le Pen, Marine Le Pen's niece, who entered politics during the regional elections of 2010. The granddaughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen will run in the legislative election in Carpentras.

- Marion Le Pen: If we can get enough deputies we will be more visible, people will realize that we are a real party, that we're serious, and that we're credible.

- Narrator: Women are the spearhead of Marine Le Pen's FN. Last March we met with Muriel Coativy, a lawyer from Lyon, a mother, newly registered with the FN, and a candidate in the legislative elections. Today she is not surprised at Marine Le Pen's results. She feels Marine Le Pen is renewing politics.

- Muriel Coativy: Politics has become so elitist, and at the same time such a quest to retain power, women have more confidence in her, she is more in contact with the everyday problems of women with children.

- Narrator: During the drive for the 500 signatures, Dominique Touly, impressed by Marine Le Pen, left the Establishment Right for the FN. Today she is entertaining another FN worker (Liliane Taraud). Both women had hoped for a higher score for Marine in the first round.

- Dominique Touly: I feel disappointed that she will not be in the second round because I had believed she would.

- Liliane Taraud: Let the UMP explode, we don't want the UMP any more, it's an old party, it has no business being there. Marine Le Pen has new ideas. She is honest. She is sincere. She is courageous.

- Narrator: Women were 8% of the voters for Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2007, on Sunday they were 18% for Marine Le Pen. A result of the un-demonization of the party and a consequence of the economic crisis.

- Jean-Yves Camus (sociologist): There are women who work, who are affected by the crisis, who are unemployed. They are usually the first ones affected not only by unemployment but by the problem of re-training.

- Narrator: The FN candidates are still not sure about the second round: a blank vote or abstention?

Note: The encouraging thing about the greater role for women in the Front National, is that these women are not malicious feminists. They seem to be traditionalists who regard Marine Le Pen's values as "new" because it's been so long since any candidate has expressed them. If they fight for Marine's values, as outlined in her campaign, then they are against immigration, for the restoration of pride in being French, for an all-out war on crime, which includes a new immigration policy, and for an economic policy founded on national preference and a national currency. They are also for alternatives to abortion and incentives to allow mothers to stay home to raise their children.

Let's hope this is the case. I didn't know so few women voted for Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2007, a sign no doubt of their aversion to his unpredictable character.

Readers' comments point out that there is always an attempt to limit Front National voters to certain groups: now it is unemployed women, before it was uneducated men. 

Update: May 13, 2012 - See the comment section for a discussion of a minor translation issue.

The View from VFR

Lawrence Auster, writing at VFR, has two posts relevant to the French election. In the first, dated April 25, he relates an e-mail conversation he and I had about the final figures. The comments that follow are about Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and the reasons why an Hollande victory may be preferable.

The second post revolves around an ominous video (that I had posted at GalliaWatch on April 12) in which we saw François Hollande visiting the black ghettos that gird Paris. VFR readers provide some highly perceptive commentary about the implications of the candidate's visit, the reasons for the existence of these ghettos, and the character of François Hollande himself.

Plunder!

A reader who says he's confused sent these two English-language links which I found very interesting. Both candidates, devoid of ideas, patriotism, originality and integrity are plundering from the only person in the election who had something valuable to say. And the Left, that is stealing from Marine, is blaming Sarkozy for... stealing from Marine!

Marine wins the election!

First article on Hollande

Second article on Sarkozy

Below, the cover of left-wing Libération with Sarkozy's shocking words: "Le Pen is compatible with the Republic"

Catholics Debate

As one of my readers accurately predicted, Marine Le Pen's voters will decide the May 6 run-off. Does it matter? The commentary at various websites has been focusing on the relative value of voting for Nicolas Sarkozy, as opposed to a blank vote. Many, including Catholics who are now wrestling with the May 6 dilemma, feel Hollande is so dangerous, that even five more years of Sarkozy would be better, and some are even imagining he will change for the better, having been given a good scare in the first round!

Catholic writer Bernard Antony has advocated a vote for Sarkozy, not because he likes him, quite the contrary, but because Hollande will destroy what's left of the country more quickly. Catholic Yves Daoudal cast a blank vote in the first round, but will vote for Sarkozy on May 6,  explaining that he cannot tolerate the idea of François Hollande as a representative of France to Europe and the world, and that Nicolas Sarkozy, "by his perpetual agitation and his verbal activism… gives the impression that France still exists". He received no small amount of criticism from his astounded readers for what appears to be an unfathomable inconsistency.

Here are some readers' responses from Daoudal's blog:

- A courageous position that will earn you much outrage from "your camp", but if we can slow down/prevent deadly decisions (euthanasia, gay adoption, etc…), let's vote for Sarko, in good conscience. Holding our noses or not…

- (…) While in the first round, you refused the lesser evil, in the person of Marine Le Pen, who would have, whatever they say, improved the current situation regarding the non-negotiable points (alternatives to abortion, family policies, immigration); but on the other hand you rush to the politics of the "least worst" in the second round.

Completely irrational.

Note: "least worst" is not grammatically correct but was invented by Bernard Antony to show that the choice in the second round is much worse than the choices that were offered in the first round. Unlike Daoudal, Antony voted for Marine Le Pen.

- Dear Mr. Daoudal: I like you a lot, but your vote is irresponsible and useless. To vote for Sarkozy is to shoot oneself in the foot. It hurts and it serves no purpose. The die is cast unfortunately, and we are heading for near-revolutionary times. Choosing between the plague and cholera never got rid of the disease. Only one outcome is possible: DEATH. Thanks.

- Yes, I too am wondering. But in this case, why would the first round vote not follow the same logic as the vote on the second round?

- That's right, you have to be coherent. Blank the first time, blank the second! Period.

- (…) When you have stayed on the sidelines in the first round, why return to the game in the second? You did not save tens of thousands of aborted children that might have been saved with Le Pen; must you now renounce saving any with Sarkozy? (…) On May 6 you will have voted both times for maintaining abortion instead of for a re-examination of the issue. This lack of logic stuns me (…)

At Le Salon Beige there are on-going discussions, sometimes tortured, among Catholic readers, on the up-coming second round and how best to deal with the dilemma. One post reviews the words of Philippe Barbarin, Archbishop of Lyon, the Primate of Gaul, who, in 2007 said:

"If the two candidates support a measure that my conscience rejects, I can perform the political act of not voting or of turning in a blank vote."

The article goes on:

To quote the Primate of Gaul is not a call to abstain, but a recognition that the blank vote or the abstention can be envisaged by cultivated people, in the name of conscience and morality.

Thus, in order to enlighten consciences, it is preferable for the debate, which for now is focused on an easy pragmatism of choice between the two candidates (…) to be placed on a higher plane: that of the legal right to vote transformed by some unknown process into a moral duty.

Everybody, including priests, is quick to demonstrate that Nicolas Sarkozy is more Catholic-compatible than François Hollande. It's not very complicated. But no one says anything about this right that has become a duty. And yet everything begins at that point.

Note: A long discussion follows on this moral duty to vote for Sarkozy (or not). French readers may want to read through some of the comments. Even though I sympathize with the dilemma faced by the Catholics, I feel the choice was clear in the first round, and that they should turn in a blank vote (or abstain) on May 6, which is another way of voting for Marine Le Pen. However, if their conscience torments them, they have to choose Sarkozy. I can't tell if their religion is helping them or leading them into agonizing rationalizations.

A brief from Le Figaro indicates that there will be no deal struck between Sarkozy and the Front National:

Nicolas Sarkozy affirmed today on France Info that there would be "no agreement" with the Front National, and "no FN ministers" in his future cabinet if he is re-elected, but he refused to demonize the voters who voted on Sunday for the candidate of the Front National, adding: "I must listen to them, understand them, and not hold my nose."

Note: I would hardly call those words complimentary. As for holding one's nose...

Good News for Hollande

The head of the Russian Communist Party, Gennadi Ziuganov, expressed his support for François Hollande and feels that this victory illustrates a general rise of the Left in the world.

Ziuganov, a former apparatchik of the Soviet Communist Party, who has been party leader since the early 1990's, came in second with 17% of the votes in the Russian presidential election on March 4. Vladimir Putin won with almost 64%.

Source: Le Salon Beige

Brussels prefers Hollande

An excerpt by Jean Quatremer posted at Le Salon Beige informs us that Brussels will be glad to get rid of the "anti-immigrationist" Nicolas Sarkozy!

Just when you think you've heard everything…

In five years his desire to marginalize the institutions of the EU to the benefit of the States, his disdain for small countries, but also his aggressiveness have made him a lot of enemies, even if everybody applauds his commitment to save the euro.

Note: I don't recall what he did for the States. Nor do I remember him marginalizing the EU's institutions. He pushed an unwilling France into the EU shortly after his election.

"Europe will profit from the election of François Hollande: he will be less intergovernmental and more inclusive vis-a-vis his partners, great and small, and there will be less aggressiveness around the table of the European Council," a high level European leader said with satisfaction. "He (Hollande) will be better balanced and less excessive than Sarkozy," added a European diplomat.

A high-ranking diplomat insisted: "Nicolas Sarkozy's re-election would be disastrous for Europe. He would be strengthened in his populism, since he would win on the basis of the anti-European and anti-immigration themes that were at the center of his campaign. Since it would be his last term in office, nothing would stop him in his intergovernmental frenzy ("dérive"). Even Angela Merkel, who is a federalist, would not be able to do very much, since she has to face elections in September 2013."

Note: A reminder that any anti-immigration or anti-European themes in his campaign were plagiarized from the Front National.

In short, in Brussels, they feel that Sarkozy would have a free hand to impose a Europe of States, the Europe that General de Gaulle dreamed of.

As one Salon Beige reader said:

- It's rather flattering, as a critique. On the other hand, Hollande is considered by them as being what he is: no government experience, national or international, no credible team, therefore he would be easy to manipulate. Food for thought before deciding to abstain on May 6…

But if re-elected, would Sarkozy live up to Brussels' distorted notion of him as an "anti-immigrationist"? Or would he live up to himself and keep the borders open to the invaders?

Marine down to 17.9%!

The definitive results published by Le Figaro are disappointing:

Hollande: 28.63%

Sarkozy 27.18%

Le Pen 17.9%

Marine lost about 2 points between Sunday evening (French time) and Monday morning!

What happened to the thousands of ex-pats who couldn't vote?

I'm beginning to think one of my readers was right when he said that Sarkozy will win.

Official Figures

The Interior Ministry has an interactive map of France, mainland and territorial, that gives the official results. By passing the cursor over the department you will see the name and number of the department and the words "résultats parvenus" or "résultats non parvenus", meaning results are in or not in. Then if you click the department, you will get more detailed information on the voting. This type of map is probably of interest more to French voters and others who speak or read a little French.

Brutal Gang Rape in England Recalls Similar Crime in France

Here is a story about a horrible gang rape that took place in England in 2009, and has just gone to court. The race of the victims is not mentioned, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist…

You may remember an almost identical case in Carpentras, France, that I reported on last year. In both cases the victims were in unfamiliar territory, in both cases they were raped repeatedly over many days, in both cases the Muslim rapists said the girls enjoyed it... I think the sentence was a bit harsher in England, though the rapists took it as a joke.

Fraud in 16 departments - a clarification

I feel obligated to clarify some information that I posted earlier about fraud in 16 French departments. This information appeared not at Riposte Laïque, but at Christine Tasin's own blog Résistance Républicaine, and it is dated April 17:

A reader of this blog has informed us that the envelope he has just received contains the ballots and the candidates' declarations of principles ("professions de foi") for all candidates except Marine. He says he called to protest and was told that it was the same in 16 departments!

It is up to you to verify if it is an isolated error or a generalized scheme, and to harass both mayors and government officials so that this "error" can be corrected at once! How far will they go to prevent democracy???

Note: I don't know how many errors there really were, or if they were corrected by election time. It sounds messy and confused, and it is quite possible that there were many election errors, both accidental and deliberate. How it would have affected the outcome, we will probably never know. Readers' comments to Tasin's post indicate a variety of problems occurred in various departments, although some readers said everything was regular.

19 - 20% for Marine (and it's not over!)

From Le Salon Beige:

In overseas territories the results are as follows:

Saint-Pierre et Miquelon - Hollande:33.75%, Sarkozy:18.75%

Guadeloupe - Hollande: 57%, Sarkozy 23.40%, Le Pen: 5%

Guiana - Hollande: 42%, Sarkozy 27%

Martinique - Hollande 51%, Sarkozy 26%, Le Pen: 4.76%

Foreign countries:

Taiwan - Hollande: 31%, Sarkozy 21%

Canada - Hollande:32%, Sarkozy 26%

At 8:00 p.m. French time (about two hours ago) all the polls were closed.

At 6:00 p.m. French time (about four hours ago) the Front National denounced fraudulent voting on Reunion Island. A suit has been filed at the prefecture and the election fraud services have been sent to Reunion. Another suit was filed at the gendarmerie. The objective: to obtain the nullification, pure and simple, of this first round of voting for the entire commune of Saint-Leu.

The Foreign Ministry has been deluged with thousands of requests from former ex-pats who were not removed from the Consulates' lists when they returned to France, and could not vote.

Belgian deputy in the European Parliament, Marc Tarabella, broke the pledge not to reveal election results before 8:00 p.m. and announced a victory for François Hollande in the first round at 6:30.

Marine Le Pen arrived at FN campaign headquarters in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, with her team, to analyze the first returns. She has said that she would not give a voting instruction to her constituents. (Note: There is a rumor that she will give an instruction. IT IS ONLY A RUMOR - DON'T BELIEVE ANYTHING!)

By 7:00 p.m. French time AFP gave Hollande 28-29%, and Sarkozy 25-26%. AFP also gave Marine Le Pen a whopping 20.7%! This is noted by Le Salon Beige at 7:22 p.m.

Here copied from Le Salon Beige are the IPSOS and Harris polls at 7:00 p.m. and 7:14 p.m. respectively:

19h00 : 1ère estimation IPSOS Hollande 30%, Sarkozy 23%, Le Pen 19%, Mélenchon 13%, Bayrou 10%.

19h14 - Harris :

FH 28,5%

NS 25,7 %

MLP 20,7 %

JLM 10,5%

FB 8,7%

EJ 2,3%

NDA 1,7%

PP 1,2%

NA 0,5%

JC 0,2%

ABS 20,6%

In the Harris poll the first three are the only ones we care about. Note that 20.6% abstained.

The Polling Commission has gone to court over the publication of estimated results before 8:00 p.m.

At 8:00 p.m. Le Salon Beige posted this from the SOFRES poll:

François Hollande 28,6%

Nicolas Sarkozy 27,0%

Marine Le Pen 19,0%

Jean-Luc Mélenchon 10,8%

François Bayrou 8,9%

Eva Joly 2,1%

Nicolas Dupont-Aignan 1,7%

Philippe Poutou 1,2%

Nathalie Arthaud 0,5%

Jacques Cheminade 0,2%

Marine Le Pen did very well. Much better than I thought at noon today. She probably actually garnered more than 20% but it is not likely we will ever know the true figures. At any rate, she is officially a politician to contend with and will be regarded as a major player in the French political landscape.

Fraud everywhere - Updated

Marine Le Pen has already filed lawsuits for voting fraud.

She has been estimated at 19% by IPSOS poll and 20% by Harris.

I will have more. I cannot post right now. The situation is confused and there are massive complaints.

If you read some French go to Salon Beige.

You can read the Tribune de Genève that gives Marine Le Pen a big score of 20%. The figures come from AFP.

Marine Has filed a grievance over the vote in Reunion Island.

Marine will not give a voting instruction for the second round.

Massive complaints from former ex-pats who returned to France but were still on the lists in the Consulates. They were not allowed to vote. There are THOUSANDS of them.

Le Figaro gives Marine 18.5%. This seems to be an average of four different polls. The range is 18.3 - 19.6%. It still isn't clear what the final figures are, but there is still much confusion. At any rate, she did MUCH BETTER than I though two hours ago.

Voting Scam?

According to readers' comments at Le Salon Beige many places, both outside of France (this includes the United States) and 16 departments in France, were not given Marine Le Pen ballots.

I'll try to have more later.

16% for Marine

I just got up, having gone to bed at about 6:00 a.m. - it's a little past noon on the East coast. Hollande has about 27%, Sarkozy 25% and Marine only 16%. Not surprising, but deflating. There has been a voting irregularity reported in Israel where voters did not receive a ballot for Marine Le Pen.

Reported by François Desouche.

Note: You may get an error message at François Desouche. I've been having some trouble there.

A Great Effort

She has run an impeccable campaign, wisely designed to appeal to the best in human nature - the love of country, the longing for freedom from fear, the need to feel at home in one's own land, to raise children in safety and prosperity, to speak one's mind freely, the aggressiveness to fight forces both alien and domestic that seek the destruction of the country. She has, we hope, reawakened the self-preservation instinct and squashed the suicidal way-of-least-resistance that the French have been taking for too long.

She was always a skilled speaker, but it became apparent, as soon as she became president of her party, that something new had happened. Propelled by super-human energy, criss-crossing the country, she tackled every television interview and every party rally with inexhaustible eloquence and near-flawless responses even to those questions posed by journalists and adversaries who clearly hated her, such as Audrey Pulvar, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Anne-Sophie Lapix and  Laurent Ruquier. She became more than an attractive blonde. Her blondness seemed to reflect the light from on high, effortlessly bestowing on her the charisma so many politicians vainly attempt to create with artifice and lofty rhetoric.

She must have had great advisers and tremendous support from people around her to accomplish this task, but she also must have had an inner voice that told her her time had come.

Whatever happens today, she has given us a glimpse of what life is like when "somebody up there likes you."

"We cannot survive an invasion..."

An editorial signed Paysan Savoyard posted at François Desouche sends this warning to those who would still vote for immigrationist candidates:

The country is experiencing multiple difficulties: unemployment, decreasing industrialization, poorly managed public money, welfare, crime. Immigration is however by far the most serious of all our ills: for fifty years, it has been a mortal danger weighing heavily over our society.

Economic and social problems are serious, but they are not vital for a society such as ours: we can restore order in the street; we can pull out of an economic depression even one that is deep and prolonged; we can force back to work those who sponge off of society; we can make sacrifices, give up non-essentials, agree to eat root vegetables for years if necessary; we can surmount the consequences of an environmental catastrophe; we can even recover from a war…

We cannot survive an invasion of the country, the massive settling of hostile invaders who gradually oust the native population.

If immigration continues, we will not recover (all the more so because our economic and social difficulties stem for the most part from immigration). It will be the end of our society and European civilization in its entirety will disappear.

With the notable exception of the Front National, all the political parties are favorable to immigration. One of the two parts of the Left-Right conglomerate will probably be again in power for five years. If this is the case, and if the current rate is maintained, there will be in 2017 two million additional immigrants (taking into account legal immigration, illegals, births, departures and deaths, the number of immigrants in France increases by 400,000 every year).

Confronted with this mortal danger, the voters of these parties who govern in succession bear an enormous personal responsibility.

(...) 

The photo shows a view of the medieval city of Carcassonne and the Aude river.

Some Sun, Some Rain

The weather forecast is rain over most of France except the southern regions. Toulouse will be partly sunny, partly rainy, Paris will have rain, as will Bordeaux and Lille, but Marseille and Perpignan will have some sun. Will this have an effect on voter turnout? In America, the weather is a major deterrent, but we are lazy voters. The French, typically, come out to vote. Let's hope their sense of the urgency of the crisis catapults them out of bed and to the polls early.

The photo shows sunrise over the church Notre-Dame-des-Anges in the town of Collioure, department of the Pyrénées-Orientales. The town is close to Spain, on the Mediterranean.

Catholics Speak Out

The Catholic vote is always a problem for the Front National. For some Catholics the Vatican's non-negotiable points take precedence over any other consideration.

This year, because Marine Le Pen has at least approached a position satisfactory to traditional Catholics, many will vote for her. Some still have doubts.

Le Salon Beige has posted a short excerpt from a longer interview with Julien Rochedy (left), a leader of a youth group for Marine Le Pen.

- What do you think of the current movement on the part of some Catholics concerning the non-negotiable principles?

- I understand the movement, but I feel it's a shame. We are at war. We must act strategically. If they stay in this fortress mentality, once the land is taken, the fortress will fall. I fear that in this system of non-negotiable principles, where they feel at home, pure and steadfast, they will in the end be duped. They have lost everything in the past thirty years, they are shrinking like the shagreen skin. You have to fight to get certain things, and snatch victories little by little. Life is war, and it seems to me that they have forgotten that strategy. Remaining alone and isolated, they risk suicide or death. I say to my Catholic friends: don't stay on the defensive. Attack!

Here are some responses:

- Unfortunately he is completely right. It's the art of war.

- The Muslims will vote, probably for Hollande, perhaps for Sarkozy, in short for any candidate who, once in power, will open the breach up wider for them. They don't care if their candidate eats halal or respects Islam. They only see what will allow them to progress. Catholics would do well to do as they do and vote for Marine.

- I think you are wrong, because the adversary acts by slowing chewing away the terrain. If we begin to negotiate the little we have left, we have lost, without having waged a war.

Note: I would say that nobody is really asking the Catholics to give up anything. Voting for Marine does not mean compromising your beliefs, unless the Religion is more important than the Homeland. But by voting for Marine you may (we aren't sure) be coming to the rescue of the Elder Daughter of the Church. Remember, Napoleon helped save the Church, even though his religious beliefs were not always obvious.

- He isn't completely wrong (in view of the current situation), even if the non-negotiable principles are fundamental. Let's not forget that the candidate closest to these principles is, by far, Marine. She is the only one who broke the taboo on abortion. No small accomplishment.

Note: Marine has said she would attempt to restrict abortions by removing them from insurance coverage, i.e., the woman would pay the medical expense. She has also said that would give married women financial incentives to stay home to raise their children, instead of being forced to work. And she has said that young girls who are pregnant would be given a real choice between abortion and pre-natal adoption. Marine has said that today Planned Parenthood gives girls the choice between an "abortion and an abortion".

She has thus gone further than any other candidate, and much further than her father or even herself in the past, towards advocating measures that would curtail abortions.

- Julien is right, Catholics must defend themselves and participate in the fight with those who are defending them, namely Marine Le Pen. There does not exist, nor will there exist a "Catholic" party in France in the current regime. We cannot therefore vacillate and gab uselessly: our children's future demands commitment. This does not preclude working to reestablish, first of all the Church of France and, among some of its own bishops, the Catholic Faith.

Note: The statement below is from Robert Marchenoir, a frequent commenter at various websites: 

- He is right. The metaphor is accurate.

Example: Marine Le Pen's position on abortion is scandalous in terms of the non-negotiable principles discussed here.

And yet, she is a revolutionary confronted with the totality of political trends in the country!

In truth, she is the only one to really express, in a way that is palatable to the majority of the French, the position of traditional Catholics.

What she is saying is very simple: abortion is wrong.

And that is at bottom what Catholics also say, even though there is a great gap between the measures advocated.

But which is more important? The details of the measures advocated? Or the affirmation of the principle?

No measure can be considered, if the underlying principles are not, a priori, agreed upon.

This is why Marine Le Pen is working for you, even if she says she is secular ("laïque").