2,731 words
This May 1st supporters of the Front National and White Nationalists everywhere have reason to celebrate. In March, the French people (and those temporarily counted among the French) went to the polls to choose their City Councilors and Mayors. As mentioned in the previous article there are more and more French who no longer see themselves as fitting into the Left and Right. This was reflected in the record high abstention rate of over one third. When the largest “party” is the sofa party, momentum shifts to the political movements with the highest level of commitment on the part of its members and sympathizers.
The FN now has 15 mayors and ~1,500 Councilors[1] across the country (previously it was 0 and 63). Marine Le Pen set the goals of being present in 500 municipalities and winning 1000 seats which the media thought was impossible. Below are profiles of victors from the four largest municipalities and an assessment of what was the key to victory.
Stéphane Ravier is the Mayor of the largest municipal unit ever held by an FN politician. He has served on the City Council of his sector in Marseille since 1995 (when he was 25) and alongside Jean-Marie Le Pen at the Regional level since for 2010 and played a large role in the delay of construction of the Grand Mosque of Marseille. The Grand Mosque has received the green lights necessary, but it is processing very slowly (sabotage?) and one hopes can be disrupted legally again.
Ravier is a longtime activist known for organizing “summer university” conferences, particularly in the southeast. He is known for speaking very directly about the struggle for law and order in Marseille. In the past couple of years, not a week goes by without news of another drug gang related murder. Weapon of Choice: AK-47. The French people are not used to high rates of murder and this is a scandal. Those whom the French press refer to as “youth” Ravier refers to as barbarians and scum. He has spoken out in the recent past about the “invasion” that France is facing and clearly states that his goal is “Reconquest,” an obvious reference to the last expulsion of Arabs from the European continent.
In France’s three largest cities, Paris, Marseille, and Lyons, are divided in to smaller units with mayors who elect a mayor for the city at large. Ravier will have a great deal of discretion in managing the largest and most blue collar sector of Marseille, but will not have complete mayoral powers.
Robert Ménard, like the MP Gilbert Collard, in my opinion, represents a necessary segment of the future leadership of nationalist parties. After Thilo Sarrazin, a German Socialist Party central banker, wrote Germany Destroys Itself there was great hope that he would lead a kind of Third Way, Nationalist mutiny of the current governing elite. Unfortunately he did not. Robert Ménard may be such a leader. It is very common to have city specific lists like, “Houston’s Future” or “Portland United” that identify as “diverse left” or “diverse right.”
Robert Ménard led “Choose Béziers” which was supported by FN, as well as two other minor parties to the right of Sarkozy’s party. Technically, though, it was not an FN list. Only a handful of potential Councilors on his list were registered as FN. His list also included 3 Identitarian leaders from Béziers.
In his youth Robert Ménard was active in the far left and in the left wing of the Socialist Party. He founded Reporters Without Borders and ran it from 1985 through 2008. His organization led the movement to raise awareness about China’s treatment of Tibetans and political prisoners leading up to the Beijing Olympics. He was awarded the Legion d’Honneur at the suggestion of former Foreign Minister and founder of Doctors Without Borders, Bernard Kouchner. After departing Reporters Without Borders he was approached by other parties to run for office, starting with the moderate MoDem party.
Since leaving his organization he has spoken out about the Islamization of Europe and has promoted the work of Renaud Camus, author of La Grande Remplacement. He appears regularly on television and radio as both an interviewer and interviewee. He also was working with the Troisième Voie (Third Way) think tank of Serge Ayoub, mentioned in a previous article, until it was given administrative death.
While campaigning Ménard was careful to walk a tightrope to gain FN supporters without alienating voters who have never supported the FN. He did still speak frankly about the city’s problems. While touring the central area he remarked to journalist that he saw only Gypsies and Arabs. He made no further comment, but this was enough to raise the hairs on the neck of the journalists. He campaigned on a very specific set of policy changes focused on reducing crime and redeveloping the center of the city. Currently, there crime stops after 11pm because the unarmed police do not patrol the streets after that time. Béziers receives 700,000 tourists each year, but 97% of them left last year as soon as they saw the historic parts and did not stop to eat or shop. This should be a case were increases in security will pay for themselves through higher tax revenues in a revitalized downtown. He also highlighted some non-security related issues, such as that the residents of Béziers pay more for tap water than anyone else in France because of questionable agreements approved by previous mayors.
Despite being an international figure, Robert Ménard has always stayed strongly linked with the town he grew up in and its people, of which one third live under the poverty line. He arrived as a child after his entirely French family escaped Algeria during decolonization. His father was a working man who both fought with the OAS (the militia seeking to remain in Algeria, which included great men such as Dominique Venner) and he was also a trade unionist in the Communist CGT. These political commitments would have appeared schizophrenic to the older generation, but in our time and through the leadership of figures like Robert Ménard, we understand better than his contemporaries.
Steeve Briois is a story of inspirational tenacity and courage. He joined the FN at age 16 and has been in every election in his town/canton/legislative district for 20 years. He has been physically attacked by Communist CGT activists when he has marched in support of workers and in the past couple of years he was given a beating while walking his dog that required a few stitches to close his head wound.
Hénin-Beaumont is in the far northern region of France, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, which has undergone decades of de-industrialization and chronic unemployment and those with jobs feel constantly at risk of losing them. A very strong “Third Way” and economically populist approach has found resonance in his town as residents have grown tired of the petty patronage system and empty promises of the Socialists. Briois won an especially impressive victory with over 50% in the first tour, eliminating the need for a second vote.
Our enemies, not missing any opportunity attack or divide us have started a whisper campaign that his personal life is not very Catholic. I doubt this will hurt him with the younger generation of voters and probably not with the vast majority of older voters either.
David Rachline is the mayor of the southern town of Fréjus. He is one of the youngest mayors of France at only 26, but he has been active with the Front National since the age of 15. He is close to the movement of Alain Soral, Égalité & Reconciliation and was deeply involved with the FN-Soral partnership.
I believe it is interesting to note that, had he lived in the Third Reich he would have been sent to the east because he has one or two Jewish grandparents. This first came to light when Rachline was the head of the FN Youth wing and a leader in the party said to the press, “how can the FN be anti-Semitic when the head of our youth wing has the same last name as one of the founders of LICRA [France’s ADL].” It has been seized upon by members of the press attempting to drive a wedge in the party to which Rachline has pointed out on various occasions that he is not “Jewish according to their codes” or that “he has never had a circumcision nor a Bar Mitzvah” and during the last election developed the picture further stating that his father was a committed atheist/leftist who decided with his Christian mother to raise him without religion in order to make a decision as an adult about religion. His parents were separated and his father died when David was a teenager. In any case, he has never made a spectacle of himself, as Black Tea Party Republican politicians do, as somehow giving legitimacy to the FN by his presence. By all accounts he is FN to the core.
One of the most pleasing moments was when the losing mayor, the Jewish White Collar criminal Elie Brun, was surrounded by cameras in his war room listening to the results from a Muslim Quarter which supported David Rachline. He then said, “After everything I’ve done for them, son of a bitch . . . Now they can build their mosque all by themselves and stop annoying the shit out of me.” He then laughed at his own joke, but his staff didn’t find the humor in his statement.
Between Winning and Losing
So what made the difference between the winners and the losers? Those who were elected had deep roots in the cities where they ran, and the rare exceptions spent at a minimum more than one election cycle familiarizing the voters with themselves and their positions. Nationally known figures who parachuted into districts were not so successful. Also, I may be wrong, but the FN could possibly be the party with the most gender parity since the potential councilors alternated on their lists between males and females and 1 of 2 MPs and 1 of 3 MEPs are female. This is well appreciated by voters and helps cast away the idea that this is a party of brutes. The Nationalist Party of Denmark, which successful entered a governing coalition and even re-established border checks to catch illegal immigrants (an act contrary to the Schengen Treaty), is also female led.
Municipal corruption and a divided opposition were key to most of the victories. A typical example would be a very corrupt politician from Sarkozy’s party (including some ex-convicts) or the Socialists would be opposed by an Independent ticket from the same side of the aisle and the other major party. As long as the FN was the leading party in the first tour, they would win the second. On the contrary, in the case of Bruno Gollnisch (who was Marine Le Pen’s opposition for party leader) he fell behind the “Independent Right” list in the first tour and lost votes in the second, because voters were more afraid of being stuck with the corrupt Center-Right leader.
All of the Socialists Party candidates in situations where the FN was in the lead were instructed to approach all parties to create a “Republican Front” against this apparent threat to the Republic. This can only help the FN in the long term since it reinforces the message that the UMP and PS represent a false choice. Many local officials refused this order and where it was followed, the FN often gained votes in the second round.
Another surprise results is that even Arabs are sick of Arabs. Both Stéphane Ravier, David Rachline, and other candidates, received support from Arab voters despite their use of words like “barbarians,” “invasion,” “thugs,” and “reconquest.” It is illegal for the French government to compile racial statistics, but Arabs may very well be the first victims of Arab crime and public harassment. It is easy to imagine them taking a chance with the only party with an expressed desire of protecting the rule of law in their neighborhoods, particularly since they can always vote the FN out in 5 years.
One very disappointing defeat was in the town of Forbach in Moselle, just south of Alsace. This region has long been a base of FN support and, whether we like it or not, there is a strong link between what one’s family was doing during the war and support for the FN. The FN was the leading party during the first round, but a strong closing campaign by the former Deputy Mayor Kalinowski, a thorough ground game of recruiting the many German residents to vote in the municipals (a right granted recently by the Socialist Parliament/President), and a constant focus on the horrors of Nazi occupation by the mayor and the media. Also, a weak showing by two other center-right lists in the first round led many of their supporters to back the Socialist. This was however, a case of the candidate being parachuted from the central office of the party, but the FN is now the principal opposition within the city council and well placed for the next election.
A Tale of Two FNs?
One of the major claims in the media is that there are now two FN programs, one in the South and Southeast focused on low taxes, crime, and corruption and one in the North and Northeast that is economically socialist. Eric Zemmour, someone who often courts controversy with his opposition to Arab and Black immigration divides it another way, those who are living in the hell of mass immigration and those who are afraid that their town and region are next.
Also, a continuing trend under Marine Le Pen is that the 2nd tour vote is no long stuck at the same raw score as before. It means that the FN is no longer limited to its hard core but gains votes from sympathizers and at times loses practical voters in the second round. This means that the FN is becoming a party like the any other, no longer a demon stalking the Republic. Marine Le Pen’s dediabolization strategy is bearing fruit.
The Difficult Road Ahead
Of course, just being elected is the beginning of our renaissance as a people. This may sound stupid and annoying to us, but there are a lot of French (and even more Germans) who still think that Nationalists will start constructing concentration camps the moment they arrive in power. This is despite the examples of Switzerland, Denmark, and Austria. Seeing FN mayors in office focused on trash pickup, street cleaning, and organizing farmers markets and annual fairs will create a psychological transition as Nationalists in power becomes mundane, at least for the French.
Young Arab thugs have rioted in several towns with new FN mayors. Tensions will be higher than usual between police and these invaders, so hopefully they will not be handed any propaganda victories over the next few years. A video like the one that sparked the LA Race Riots of the early ’90s would do serious damage to the FN.
Cities with FN Mayors can expect to see an end to Halal options in public cafeterias, an end to imposition of gender segregation in hospitals and swimming pools, stronger policing, public events that celebrate the heritage and accomplishments of our race and nation, no new mosques, and some clever rerouting of public buses to preserve our public spaces when school is out of session.
As mentioned in the last article, the FN’s last chance to prove itself in City Hall was totally blown by corruption. The ability of these mayors to deliver on their promises will translate directly into the chance of electing Marine Le Pen President. Only a President can organize Swiss-style referenda. Then we will see the beginning of re-migration of the invaders and de-Islamization of our working-class neighborhoods, both policies with majority support in polls, as well as the voluntary departure of those paranoid people who shall always dwell alone.
Note
1. These numbers include the Choisir Béziers ticket of Robert Ménard.
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10 comments
Thank you for this informative and interesting article.
It might avoid confusion if the word ’round’ was used in place of ‘tour’, for example, in:
‘Briois won an especially impressive victory with over 50% in the first tour, eliminating the need for a second vote.’
‘As long as the FN was the leading party in the first tour, they would win the second.’
‘Also, a continuing trend under Marine Le Pen is that the 2nd tour vote is no long stuck at the same raw score as before.’
The Ligue du Sud (League of the South), a regional nationalist movement in south-eastern part of the France (Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur), won also four cities.
-Jacques Bompard, Orange
-Marie-Claude Bompard, Bollène
-Louis Driey, Piolenc
-Philippe de Beauregard, Camaret-sur-Aigues
Every candidates that were not locally rooted and active did not make it. Like Philipot.
There is a division in this party, there are the sovereinists(?), like philipot, Collard, Rachline.
And the “identitaires”, like me, who solely base their political views uppon this saying:
One people, one land.
We dont care about a soverein nation that keeps considering that anyone with a French ID is French. Nationalism erases cultural and regional identities to only promote the “bottle”, the nation. Not what s inside.
We consider, specially me being Basque, that no nation should exist without its own people. You could have a nationalist leading party in France, that would be mostly populated with crickets, i mean Africans. Would it still be France? For Oprah and Jayzee, sure…
The first ones are usyally coming from the left, there are new on the patriot scene, and they sound fishy. We think they are multiculturalists sent to change the leading patriotic party from the inside, to just become a main stream multiculturalism liberal party.
Fyi, soral and its E&R are just a big scam in order to catch as many “identitaires” real ethnic french, anti arabs, from joining the growing movements called bloc identitaire and génération identitaire.
9/10 of FN voters do so in the hope to oust the crickets. Not to befriend with goat loving aliens.
The percentage of arabs voting FN is ridiculous, as they traditionally vote for socialists, who in turn grant them with always more subsidies and free mosques.
All in all, your description is right, the main issue being the same as here in the US.
This patriotic party, fairly close ideologically to the libertarians, is led by a guy, who s main task is to shy off all the traditional patriots and conservatives from joining yhe dark side.
This by abusing the use of idiotic vocabulary, that medias are always hungry for more.
Jean marie le pen has done more harm to the nationalists than any other in europe. And is well paid for that.
Just like Ron Paul, a strawman put in place to take out any credibility to consrvatives, patriots and nationalists.
I def believe now that most Americans are libertarians. But who would vote for an unactractive dude that keeps talking about stupid ideas instead of phrasing properly what Americans are really expecting from their politics?
We sure hope Marine will not follow her father steps, and she already is successful by showing a more clever image of the party.
She will be the first step, before guys like Philippe Vardon can really count in the political french landscape. And so start to implement simple measures that will make most cricket lives in France unbearable.
Merci, love your site. Very encouraging to see Americans decided to show around that a generation without a past has no future.
And the picture of Ravier us spot on, if one deserved a victory, that was him, an ethnic Frenchman, deeply rooted in Provence, who finally won a recognition after years of local militantism.
How large is bloc identitaire’s and génération identitaire’s support?
What kind of activism are the people engaged in?
Makes more sense once you see the name of the author..
Was wondering how an American could know so much.
Soral et Rachline… Nous voila sauvés!
Ravier’s poster is superb. “Social Justice, Identity, Security.” How much sweeter than “liberty, equality, fraternity!”
Patrick Le Brun: “It means that the FN is no longer limited to its hard core but gains votes from sympathizers” / “Marine Le Pen’s dediabolization strategy is bearing fruit.”
In the past decades, the Front National was demonized by the Jews who own the media and the political apparatus. It isn’t that people disagreed with Jean-Marie Le Pen’s idea of sending the immigrants back home. The Jews say that the voters were put off by his remarks about WW2 and the Jews, but he hardly ever said anything about that, and most people don’t care anyway. The demonization was simply a Jewish strategy. They were running a permanent vilification campaign against him. As a result, most people, out of television-induced conformism, would not vote for him. Politicians in mainstream right-wing parties were forbidden by the Jews to strike any alliance with the evil right-wing Front National. It was all the more easy for the judeo-socialists, judeo-communists, and judeo-phony-environmentalists to win the elections. Also, no one was left in the mainstream right-wing parties to say anything against race-replacement. JF Copé, the current chairman of UMP, the main right-wing judeo-party, is a Jew. Former president Sarkozy (2007-2012), who came from the same right-wing party did not even slow down the race-replacement program. Actually, he said that race-mixing was an imperative, and if it didn’t work, stronger coercive measures would have to be taken.
Just like the demonization of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the un-demonization of Marine Le Pen is a Jewish decision. The mass media like to suggest that she decided to break with her father’s strategy and hide her evil nature behind a nice smile and a less aggressive position. What actually happened is that the Jews decided to give the daughter more leeway. She is still being demonized, but not as strongly as her father, and she is more often invited on TV. We don’t know exactly what was the deal. We know that she no longer speaks of expelling the immigrants. She would just like to stop more from coming. We also know that she has been expelling real nationalists from her party. We know that the Front National no longer has strong grass roots (it helps to explain why they only have 15 mayors, out of 36,000 French mayors). And we have no idea what she would do if she was elected President of France. Maybe she is hiding her feelings and she is a real nationalist at heart. Or maybe she is a real citizenist, like Steve Sailer. I will vote for her in the next European election (May 25) because I have no other choice.
Solid article. Good to see what nationalists are up to in Europe. Gives us back here in the Homeland some inspiration for positive political action.
A lot of savoir-faire in this article. We in America need to scrutinize this article very carefully for “how to” tips or pitfalls that may be applicable here.
Question: How relevant or operative is the term “identitarian” in the American context?
Justice sociale! Identité Securité! (pour toute l’Europe)
Dear Robert
Support for the BI so far is very tiny, publicly at least. They are presented by the media as the most extreme far right.
Their origin is Unité radicale, movement outlawed after the attempt from one of them ( light iq guy)to shoot Chirac in the 90’s.
They are now much better organized, and their base is usually found in ultra soccer fans.
I must admit that my knowledge is limited as i am not part of the movement.
But, politically, they are the influential base of the current that promotes european identities vs the sovereignists ( nick griffin vs nigel farage to give you a more demonstrative idea)
They also understood that it is useless to insist on jewish power if patriots are to convert masses. (One important thing that white activists in the US must understand in order to grow interest, most people see the criticism of zionist activists as antisemitism. Exactly how they write ron paul off the books ie for each elections).
Bloc identitaire is organized regionally, from Nice to Lille, of different locally based sections. They promote the europe of regions.
Also they are pushing behind the Le Pen to center frennch patriots attention on ethnic considerations rather than nationalism. If you listen to le pens, you can be an arab french nationalist…
They have already theorized and offered solutions for the retro migration of africans to their homelands in a peacefull way.
I think this is their biggest hit as most yougsters today, ready to vote for the FN, do so in the hope of ousting the “allogènes”.
That s how they came up with generation identitaire, groups of youngsters who have accomplished a couple of spectacular and mediatized actions. Like occupying the roof of the great mosque of Poitier( charles the hammer starting point to break off muslim invasion centuries ago), or locked themselves up in socialist party headquarters during anti gay mariage protests.
Both times they unveiled huge written signs to attract the media, thus getting a wide spread audience.
I am pretty sure it stroke a large part of french viewers as a bold(bald?) move, necesary to reassure millions of lonely viewers that they were not alone, as well as showing France that we dont take the great replacement of french population for granted.
They also propose pork soups for ethnic french hobos in winter, and have just started securization tours by groups in subways to show joe blow that aliens criminality can be fought against by simply gathering a dozen brave guys to keep any crimes to iccur under their watch , sort of peacefull vigilante.
It is VERY tricky as government do not give them an inch of misbehavior, in the legal frame.
Their logo is” they have their ethnic thug groups, you can now choose you clan.”
It is really the beginnig, embryon state, but our generation (i m 35), and younger dont really have anything to loose considering that criminal justice for aliens in France is non existent. You know the ” id rather go to jail than end up in the hospital.
Now, before fn and affiliated like Menard won a few city halls, BI movement like ” league of the south” have been a strong support and acquaintance of previously elected FN mayors, who have been kicked out of FN, as they usually refused to abide by the rule of paris cdntralized fn, in order to keep a strong and ancient rooting at the local level.
Jacques Bompard is the best example for that matter. Has great financial and social results, is strongly locally anchored, has the support of the local patriots and get reelected everytime.
Menard the “newbie” has played the same card, being native from his city of Beziers, using all the different patriot supports he could get. Still staying out of FN party. And it worked.
I m truely sorry not to be more concised and to butcher your language, havent had a chance to work on my academics the past ten years. I am too busy making myself a name in my hand trade in Oklahoma…
I hope it will help you understand a little better why, sure the FN is a locomotive, but as any bigger party, it holds too many battles of egos, nonsense local nomination for local elections. And as i bekieve it is the case here with Ron Paul, just a strawman ( mostly jean marie le pen) to keep french patriots and conservatives( the biggest part of french population) to go truely patriotic and ethno centered.
Some think Marine plays it right by calling the little people of the left, which may pay overtime, but we think she just keeps up with daddy s legacy of centrism, which has taken us nowhere till today.
Bonne soirée.
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