The Minister of the Interior triggered the wrath of La France insoumise by quoting a sentence from the historian, a major figure in Action Française, during the debates concerning the immigration reform project.
It is a reference that was not expected within the walls of the National Assembly. At least in the mouth of Gérald Darmanin. On the sidelines of a debate without a vote on the immigration reform project, the Minister of the Interior quoted the monarchist historian Jacques Bainville in his speech, under the outraged whistles of the elected officials of La France insoumise.
“The French people are a compound. It’s better than a race, it’s a nation. Unique in Europe, the conformation of France lent itself to all exchanges of currents, those of blood and those of ideas. France is an isthmus, a major communication route between the North and the South“, declaimed Gérald Darmanin, indicating that, “like (Bainville), we believe that immigration is part of France and the French“.
“Wink and fondness to the far right»
Clever maneuver by the Minister of the Interior, who therefore mentioned a major figure in Action Française, now largely affiliated with the “far right»…to praise the historical merits of immigration. But on the left as on the right, this reference did not have the expected effect. On Twitter, La France insoumise did not fail to take offense afterwards. “Gérald Darmanin calmly quotes the historian Jacques Bainville, figure of French Action and friend of Maurras. Wink and fondling to the far right in the hemicycle. Are you okay, are we bothering you?wrote the leader of the Melenchonist party, Mathilde Panot.
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The LFI parliamentary group’s Twitter account also commented on the footage, saying its “shame” that a Minister of the Interior can cite a “figure of the extreme right” and “inspired by Eric Zemmour“.
NUPES MP Thomas Portes felt that this sequence was “disgusting“. “As a reminder, he is a major figure in Action Française, a far-right royalist movement and a close friend of the anti-Semite Charles Maurras. The tone is set“, he lamented.
As for Claire Guéville, national secretary of the SNES-FSU union, majority in college and high school, she wondered “who can quote Jacques Bainville without scruple? Apart from the extreme right?“.
Action française dissociates itself
This quote also didn’t sit well on the right. “The foreign minister“, simply commented the deputy RN Julien Odoul, sharing the extract on Twitter. “I would rather Darmanin quote Trotsky and stop immigration than quote Bainville and bring in more immigration to France than any politician has ever brought in in fifty years.“, for his part tweeted Garen Shnorhokian, former spokesperson and member of the cabinet of Eric Zemmour.
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Even Action Française did not seem to appreciate the reference, accusing the Minister of the Interior of not having grasped the meaning of the historian’s sentence: “Gérald Darmanin cites Jacques Bainville to justify a law that will not solve the migratory invasion that France is undergoing. If France is, indeed, better than a race, it remains a compound which has its own identity.“.