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| Europe |
| Le Pen: "Riots just the start" |
| 2005-11-09 |
| French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen claimed Wednesday his National Front party has been "submerged" with prospective members and supportive e-mail since rioting erupted in heavily immigrant communities near Paris. In an interview with The Associated Press, Le Pen described the recent violence as "just the start" of conflicts caused by "massive immigration from countries of the Third World that is threatening not just France but the whole continent." Le Pen said people with immigrant backgrounds who commit crimes should be stripped of their French nationality and sent "back to their country of origin." Reminded that the vast majority of youths taking part in the arson and rioting are French, born in France to immigrant parents, he said: "What does that mean? Are they French because they have a French identity card?" French nationality should be given only to those who ask for it and "who are worthy of it," he said. "Those who got nationality automatically, who don't consider themselves French and who even say publicly that they consider France their enemy should not be treated as French." Le Pen said he is convinced that what he described as a surge in support for his "zero immigration" platform would translate into votes at the ballot box for his National Front party. French voters "are saying to themselves 'Le Pen was right. We were told that Le Pen is an extremist because he said that immigration problems would lead to disorder. The facts have shown that he was right,'" he said. "We are receiving thousands of new members, tens of thousands of e- mails. All of our offices are submerged, we don't know how to respond because we don't have the staff to reply to the wave of people who, 95 percent of them, salute and approve our positions," he added. Le Pen gave no specifics on the number of new members, but the party's top official for new memberships said the figure was closer to 1,000 and that they were requests to join. Le Pen stunned many in France and shocked Europe by making it through to the second round of the last presidential elections in 2002. But he was soundly defeated in a runoff against President Jacques Chirac. Le Pen said he is "more than ever" determined to run again in 2007. "If there were presidential elections now, my chances would be increased tenfold," he said. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #16 "So who exactly is this "France" that needs to do something?" The cabinet, the senior civil servants, and the businessmen, journalists, non-cabinet politicians, etc who set the parameters for the above. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2005-11-09 18:07 |
| #15 Just what France needs, another opportunity for this nutbag to grab the spotlight. Between him & the rioters, France is screwed. |
| Posted by: Desert Blondie 2005-11-09 17:35 |
| #14 I've seen stuff from Le Pen defending both Saddam and the Assad Dynasty. Curious. |
| Posted by: Phil 2005-11-09 17:15 |
| #13 That is, buy an island in the ocean for them I hear Iles Kerguelen is nice this time of year. France already owns it too. |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2005-11-09 16:50 |
| #12 France's failure to stop the low-level terrorism against the local French and French Jews for the past 7-10 years have practically insured the rehabilitation and rise of fascism. Look at the first steps of Hitler and the Nazis : running street battles with the Commies and Anarchists; promising to end the violence and restore order; getting people elected on those promises; becoming a major political party; then take over the state. As long as the present political structure is seen as caving into the Islamists/drug dealers, the fascists have a shot. |
| Posted by: Shieldwolf 2005-11-09 16:38 |
| #11 who exactly is France? Chirac won't do anything, he's already made that clear. He's like Mayor Nagin - his only idea of action is to blame the actions taken by others. Outside of calling for calm and promising ponies - no stiff action will be taken by Chirac or Villipin. Jean Marie Le-Pen is not France. The people are not armed. So who exactly is this "France" that needs to do something? |
| Posted by: 2b 2005-11-09 16:26 |
| #10 Le Penism is of course another reason why elite France NEEDS to get tough with the rioters, while it is still in a position to do so. Further growth of Le Penism, bad in itself, would make the problems in the banlieus that much worse - a cycle of extremism on both sides. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2005-11-09 16:21 |
| #9 Having owned a Renault, I would vote for anyone who torched it! |
| Posted by: Sgt. D.T. 2005-11-09 16:10 |
| #8 If he was 'open" he would get jail in PC Phrance AlanC doncha know. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom 2005-11-09 15:58 |
| #7 He would get my vote if someone had just tourched my renault... |
| Posted by: Mctavish Mcpherson 2005-11-09 15:55 |
| #6 he's also a holocaust denier. have no illusions about who/what he is. if france embraces him as a reaction to the riots, they're dancing with the devil. |
| Posted by: PlanetDan 2005-11-09 15:53 |
| #5 SPoD: closet? I was under the impression that there was nothing closeted about him. Anti-immigrant, anti-semitic, anti-EU, anti-globalization and anti-American IIRC. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2005-11-09 15:52 |
| #4 Le Pen is a closet Facsist. Not someone I would make friendly with. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom 2005-11-09 15:31 |
| #3 Le Pen talks right (especially about citizenship of those who harm their country). Question is, whether he has guts to turn his talks into reality. |
| Posted by: Nesvarbukas 2005-11-09 15:17 |
| #2 There is little that I can find of objective analysis of Le Pen. His platform is anti-immigrant, but it is also anti-Euro and anti-EU. So how radical is radical? I've suggested elsewhere that many of the non-French mob have nowhere to go. That is, they are not integrated in France, but neither belong in their parent's country of origin, either. If they are law-abiding and employed, they are not a problem. But if they are criminal, unemployed, and have no prospect to be anything else, the French do have an alternative: "neutral" deportation. That is, buy an island in the ocean for them, most likely off the coast of Africa. Build free housing for them there, and regularly give them food, but otherwise have it as a re-creation of Devil's Island. A non-prison prison. Put it under French military command to keep a semblance of order, but otherwise, give them the French largesse they have now, but let them be unable to repay France in violence and riot. Such an island would be much like Haiti. In short order it would degenerate, but that is just a reflection of who was put there. I suppose it would be reassuring to the French to see chaos removed, that could have plagued them from their own backyard. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-11-09 15:15 |
| #1 I've been wondering where this clown has been. Has the media just now gotten around to talking to him or has he just now crawled out from under his rock? |
| Posted by: Laurence of the Rats 2005-11-09 14:34 |