France: The Great Non-Debate on National Identity

GalliaWatch 13 November 2009
By tiberge

One of the biggest stories in France these past several days has been the much-touted (by the Establishment) and much-ridiculed (by the Right) "debate on national identity" launched by the Sarkozy regime.

The amount of material is staggering, and I can only present a small sampling. Here is one of the first articles on this topic from Le Point dated October 26:

Eric Besson, Minister of Immigration, announced on Sunday the launching of a vast debate on national identity with the "vital forces" of the country, thus re-opening on the front pages one of the central themes of Nicolas Sarkozy's presidential campaign. "I want to launch a great debate on the values of national identity, on what it means to be French today," declared the Minister of Immigration and National Identity. "I will launch it with parliamentarians, deputies and senators, and with European deputies."

This debate will last two and a half months and end with a "great closing discussion" late in January. The minister will ask "prefects and sub-prefects to organize meetings with the vital forces of the Nation on the theme of what it means to be French, what the values are that bind us together, what the nature is of the ties that make us French and of which we should be proud. We must reaffirm the values of national identity and pride in being French," he said. "I think for example that it would be good - in the United States it's banal, but in France it's still a bit complicated - for all young Frenchmen to have at least one opportunity a year to sing the Marseillaise," he explained.

Note: I have no idea what he means by the above reference to the U.S. But as for singing the Marseillaise, we know it is frequently booed by both foreigners and natives alike at soccer matches. In America, I remember clearly when the Star-Spangled Banner was booed by black students in the school assemblies. Today in America very few people can sing the anthem, and nobody knows the words.

The article goes on to disclose that for Eric Besson the burqa should be banned because it is not a part of French identity. Not surprisingly he never says that Islam should be banned. However he does indicate that the Front National should disappear:

"We never should have abandoned to the Front National a certain number of values that are a part of the republican patrimony (...) I think that the political death of the Front National would be the best news for all of us." (...)

However, an article at Le Salon Beige quotes another article from Polemia on the true nature of this pseudo-debate. No one will be surprised:

The debate on national identity launched by Eric Besson, on orders from Nicolas Sarkozy, is not only a strategy for taking votes away from the Front National, but it is especially an operation of propaganda on métissage. The minister said it himself:

"The mission I have received from the president says: 'Our nation is of mixed blood. Immigration constitutes a source of permanent enrichment of our national identity'. We have a president who is saying: 'I am a person of mixed blood at the head of a nation of mixed blood'."

Polemia clarifies further:

There we have a constant in Nicolas Sarkozy's beliefs. His second wife Cécilia was proud of saying she "did not have one drop of French blood". In his campaign publication from July 2006, Sarkozy wrote:

"I think that the French are awaiting the France of the future. It will be a France where the expression 'ethnic Frenchman' ('Français de souche') has disappeared."

In the same vein, Nicolas Sarkozy declared on December 17, 2008, at the Ecole Polytechnique, the temple of republican merit: "The objective is to meet the challenge of 'métissage'. (...) It is not a choice, it is an obligation."

Note: The above was the notorious speech in which Sarkozy literally threatened his subjects that there would be dire consequences if they did not engage in cross-breeding, miscegenation, mixing blood, or whatever term you prefer for "métissage".

Polemia goes on:

Prime Minister François Fillon was not to be left out: at Reunion Island on July 9, 2009, he spoke of a "united France, a multicolored France, that has never had any flag other than the tricolor (sic!) (...) A France that pursues its centuries-old work of cross-breeding." As for Jean-François Copé, leader of the UMP deputies in the National Assembly, he had declared to Le Monde before the launching of the debate: "Stop forcing our children to believe that our ancestors were all Gallic."

Le Salon Beige closes its article:

For Polemia, this great debate is a way of burying the identity of France: her ethnic groups, her Catholic faith, her history, her culture, her language. Nicolas Sarkozy should be cautious. It was he who declared in Ryad, Saudi Arabia on January 14, 2008:

"My dear friends of Saudi Arabia, this is not about trying to impose a unique example of civilization (...) That would be denying identities. (...) Nothing is more dangerous than a wounded identity, a humiliated identity."

Note: Sarkozy, like the Left in general, has created an inextricable web of lies and misunderstood notions like "race" and "racism", and as they always do, they pretend to be "patriots" just before an election (some regional elections are coming up, or have already transpired). The agenda, as Polemia and every informed conservative knows, is first, to win votes, second to destroy what remains of a national identity - on orders from Brussels, if not the devil...

An important point, often overlooked, is that through the years, African leaders have bitterly criticized the white man for carving up Africa without regard to ethnic identities. In other words, the Africans themselves WANT their separate identities. They do not WANT to be mixed. But when it comes to invading a European society like France with its gigantic welfare State and its self-hating rhetoric, THEN they come in droves. Strange, isn't it?

I still cannot grasp if the French people - in their MAJORITY - realize this, or if they are sucked into it, or if they are merely bored or confused and want to be left alone... Any thoughts?

At any rate, Eric Besson, amidst much hoopla, created a website for those interested in voicing their opinions on this topic. But be advised that if your point of view smacks of the Right, you may be censored, as Le Salon Beige readers found out:

- Yes! They finally posted my comment (after seven attempts!!!) but they cut out the middle. What should I do?? Send the second half seven times?

- At Monsieur Besson's site, they want anonymous bleaters, symbols of the official thought that has turned most Frenchies into left-wingers and imbeciles.

- It is necessary to bring this censorship to public attention. I also posted my participation and it was never published. It was very correctly worded, but it did go back to fundamentals...

- I too was censored. This site must be boycotted since it is propaganda that recalls the darkest days of France. Here is what I said:

"National identity has been sacrificed, not by the most moral of the ruling elite, but by the most 'arriviste', on the altar of money and globalization. France today is weakened and in debt. She no longer has the means to be humanist. She can only be naive and sink further and further. How far down? There has never been a civilization disappear and then be reborn. We have lost our national identity and we will never be able to retrieve it."

There are other comments. And Bernard Antony, whose blog I frequently consult, was censored when he posted the contents of one of his older blog entries. The entry, to be sure, is very long, and recounts the history of France and the genesis and development of her culture and civilization. Here is just a tiny passage:

(...) In the course of these last fifty years, French identity has been the object of a conjuncture of factors relating to evolution and changes such that the possibility of a radical change of identity, even of an end to an identity by means of the process of genocide through substitution, must be considered.

No wonder it wasn't posted.

French readers can consult this entry at Le Salon Beige for more comments on the thwarted attempts to post patriotic messages, and for a link to Besson's website where some well-known French politicians leave their contributions.

The collage at the top is a parody of Sarkozy's presidential campaign poster. "La France d'après" (the France of the future, or the France afterwards) is portrayed as a crime-ridden Islamized country, unrecognizable to those who remember "la France d'avant" (France before). It cannot be stressed too much that Nicolas Sarkozy WARNED his subjects of his policies before the election. Only at the last minute did he allow himself to be seen next to Jean-Marie Le Pen, thus triggering a spate of useless enthusiasm on how he was espousing nationalism, patriotism and pride in country. When Sarkozy boasts about having told the truth, he is NOT lying... Most French nationalist blogs were not in the least bit fooled by his last-minute posture of patriotism. This posture has served him well - he wins his elections, and prevents the Front National from winning anything.

Below, Minister of National Identity, Eric Besson.