Twenty retired French generals, 100 lower-ranking officers and close to 1,000 French soldiers expressed outrage at the state of the country in an open letter to Macron published in the right-wing magazine Valeurs Actuelles on April 21st. The date of publication was pointedly timed to coincide with the 60th anniversary of an attempted putsch against Gen Charles de Gaulle during the Algerian war, and the 20th anniversary of Jean-Marie Le Pen’s qualification for the presidential election run-off.
“France is unravelling,” the generals wrote. They alleged that “hatred between communities” was fanned by “a certain anti-racism” and “Islamism and the hordes of the banlieue”. If Macron continued to “dither”, they warned, “Tomorrow civil war will put an end to the growing chaos and the deaths, for which you will be responsible, will be counted in the thousands.” Continued “laxity” would necessitate “the intervention of our comrades on active duty”, they added.
Marine Le Pen qualified her support for the generals’ letter with the words, “I think these problems can be resolved by a political project that is validated by the French in a democratic framework.” In other words, by voting for her in the presidential election.
On Wednesday, the chief of staff of the armed forces, Gen François Lecointre, announced that 18 signatories who were active duty officers would be disciplined.
The Harris Interactive poll indicated that 58 per cent of the population agree with the message of the generals’ letter, though a majority do not want a military takeover.
Le Pen’s support for the generals destroyed years of efforts to improve the image of the far right, says Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade, a deputy in the
National Assembly for Macron’s La République en Marche and spokesman for the party in the last European elections. “She has shown that she is exactly like her father. She is from the anti-republican, brutal extreme right,” he said.
Marine Le Pen
Polls indicate Macron would win 54 per cent of the vote in a presidential run-off, against 46 per cent for Le Pen.
That represents a 12-point gain for Le Pen – and a 12-point decline for Macron – since 2017.
“It has never been so possible that Marine Le Pen could win,” says
Natacha Polony, the director of Marianne magazine and a frequent commentator on French television. “A Le Pen victory is possible now because part of the left will refuse to vote for Macron in the run-off, and because she no longer frightens some people . . . The only certainty is people feel no matter what they do, the same policies are always adopted . . . This country is filled with anger, resentment and frustration, and when that doesn’t find an outlet, it’s very dangerous.”
Polony agrees that the French electorate has always been angry, but says this time is different. The gilets jaunes movement was unprecedented. “People want to kill cops now, which is new. And people who have spent 10 or 15 years in France are taking up arms because they hate this country. That too is new. You cannot say it’s always been like this. There is no means of structuring this anger.”
