Populist politician Marine Le Pen has invited former military officials to join her movement after they signed a letter denouncing Islamism and rising crime and warned of potential civil war in France.
The letter, which was signed by 20 former generals, including the former Commandant of the French Foreign Legion Christian Piquemal, called on President Emmanuel Macron to defend patriotism in France.
“Today, some talk about racialism, indigenism, and decolonial theories. But through these terms, it is a race war that these hateful and fanatical partisans want. They despise our country, its traditions, its culture, and want to see it dissolve by ripping off its past and history,” the letter states.
It goes on to call on Macron and others to act against the growing trends of crime and Islamism, warning that if nothing was done, the country risks civil conflict.
The authors continued that “if nothing is done, laxity will continue to spread inexorably in society, ultimately causing an explosion and the intervention of our active comrades in a perilous mission to protect our civilisational values and safeguard our compatriots on national territory”.
“As we can see, it is no longer time to procrastinate. Otherwise, tomorrow, the civil war will put an end to this growing chaos, and the dead, for whom you will bear responsibility, will count in the thousands,” the letter concludes.
Marine Le Pen reacted to the letter, calling on the signatories, more than a thousand in total of all ranks, to join her, saying: “I invite you to join our action to take part in the battle that is opening up.”
“As a citizen and politician, I agree with your analysis and share your affliction,” she added, according to Le Figaro.
French leftist politicians criticised Le Pen’s response, including Socialist Party politician Benoît Hamon, who said: “Sixty years after the start of the Algiers putsch, 20 generals explicitly threaten the Republic with a military coup.”
The Algiers putsch of 1961 was a failed coup attempt by several French generals to force President Charles de Gaulle not to separate Algeria from France.
The letter from the former military personnel comes after several others, including French General Pierre de Villiers, the former chief of staff of the French armed forces, have warned of the possibility of civil conflict.
General de Villiers said in December: “France has been at peace for 75 years. We soldiers do not want war. We know what it is. My fear is civil war. When we behead a teacher in front of a college or when we murder three people who come to pray in a church.”
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