Thoughts on Dominique Venner

The reactions to Dominique Venner's suicide are greatly varied, displaying compassion and understanding, but also severity toward Venner for doing such a terrible thing, and toward his sympathizers for not realizing what a basically evil man he was.  I admit to knowing little about him until this occurred. I had heard the name and read snippets of his writings at various sites, but I was not familiar with his character or his work. I do not personally want to enter into a discussion of suicide, except to repeat what I said in a comment, namely that I think he may have done more harm than good to the cause of French resistance. Here is Yves Daoudal's uncompromising criticism of Venner's deed which he considers a provocation. This post elicited forty-five persuasive comments from readers.

Dominique Venner committed suicide by shooting a bullet through his mouth before the high altar of the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris.

I found him very unlikeable. And it isn't because he was "pagan", since I know pagans whom I like. Behind his paganism, there was, in truth, as one can see in his final message at his blog (before his suicide letter), but one can see it also in his manner of relating history, a total atheism, hence an absolute, hateful rejection of all that is religious. There was in him something satanic. That is how I perceived it. And his death confirms it.

The staging of his death shows his will to blaspheme. Suicide in a consecrated place is a double crime: a murder and a profanation. It is a satanic provocation, both abject and pathetic. The cathedral remains, God too. But Venner has disappeared. The act of revolt against God, that tries to be spectacular, in reality has no consistency. No human consistency , and no historical consistency.

But the fate of his soul is terrifying.

There was a strong reaction from his readers many of whom answered him forcefully and persuasively, whatever their opinion. I can only give a tiny sampling, somewhat edited:

- I think you would have done better to abstain.

- DV's thinking owes much to German paganism at the very least. He greatly influenced anti-Christian associations. Monsieur Daoudal is right many times over. I find nothing to criticize in his analysis. Let's look closely at those who rush to praise this man. It's very revealing.

- No, Monsieur Daoudal, it is not a blasphemous act. It's an act of love and hope even if he did not believe. I hope he will be welcomed.

Note: One of the major questions the readers debate is whether a suicide can still hope for divine mercy.

One reader who remains anonymous claims to have known Dominique Venner. The OAS was the clandestine French army mobilized to defend French Algeria:

- (…) I completely approve of your article on the death of Dominique Venner. I knew the man well when I was a student. It was in my house that he hid for several weeks when the police were after him as an active sympathizer of the OAS (he was not really a member I'm sure, despite what they say). He was really pagan, but it was a modern paganism particularly hateful of Christ, despite his austere morals. Secretly he was a great admirer of Hitler, whom he never reproached except that he failed. He profoundly, viscerally, despised Christianity and regarded Christians as weaklings. He detested the catholic nature of Christianity, preferring the exalted notion of national tribalism. What he liked in chivalry, was absolutely not the chivalric side, Christianized, but the dark side, brutal, almost perverse. (…) Like you, I believe that his deed was an ultimate provocation, a final act of defiance at this Christ whom he doubly hated as a Jew and as protector of the weak. He often said to me, in the years between 1959 and 1962 (…) that it would be necessary one day to resume Hitler's work and to succeed in annihilating Jews and Christianity. This man's soul was in the hands of the devil, even though he always showed a friendly manner. I hesitate to say "may his soul rest in peace"!

Note: A reminder that this is an anonymous comment. It may be true, false, partially true, biased or based on emotional factors. We never know for sure who sends comments. These are terrible accusations.

The next comment is addressed to Yves Daoudal:

- Sir, this article adds nothing to your reputation. It is like kicking a corpse. Monsieur Venner's act, and I have no intellectual affinity with him, is perhaps grandiloquent or even grotesque, but his motives are in no way low or contemptible. At least he acted in conformity with his thinking. How many Catholics can claim to do as much? As for pagans, I feel closer to an old Roman who respects the rituals and the gods than I do to these little atheist pleasure-seekers who make up the majority of our contemporaries and who have no sense of the sacred, not even pagan sacred. The account by the reader on his relationship with Monsieur Venner strikes me as completely out of place. It is more than kicking a corpse, it is spitting on him. R.I.P.

- The account by the reader is in no way out of place; it supports what we felt instinctively about this man, namely his satanic and Hitlerian aspect, and his rebellion against God.

- You are not God, so far as I know.

Note: Father Claude Proux, a chaplain, writes to Yves Daoudal:

- Monsieur Daoudal. Thank you for the very relevant comment on Dominique Venner, but your last words are excessive: "The fate of his soul is terrifying". Yes, we must repeat that 1) to commit suicide is a very grave sin 2) that in this case to do it in a church in front of everyone aggravates the fault 3) but the mercy of the Savior is infinite… if you open your heart to him. Monsieur Venner needs our prayer… Say it!

To which Yves Daoudal responds:

- Dear Father, I know well that a miracle is always possible, at the last fraction of a second…

But it is necessary to take into account the fact that Dominique Venner was fiercely anti-Christian and atheist his whole life. In a way that seemed to me to be satanic from the first moment I laid eyes on him (although his speech was very urbane…).

I hope he had a flash of lucidity at the last moment, but it would really be a miracle. I wrote without taking this very slim possibility into account, and I am changing nothing. It is not I, it is the Church that, not so long ago, refused a Christian burial to suicides. (…)

Note: There's much much more. But the essential questions have been asked: Was he in any way justified? Will any good come of this? Was his hatred of the Church due to his affinity for paganism or his disillusionment with a Church that had collaborated with the Left and later with Islam? Was this an act of despair or an act of defiance? If defiance, was it defiance of God or defiance of a Church he deemed inadequate? Answers are harder to come by than questions.

At his website, Catholic writer Bernard Antony scorns the ignorance of the media:

- The inept remarks you are hearing from the media are enough to make the constellations whinny! In their ignorance, as abysmal as it is haughty, that characterizes those whose job it is to inform, they have presented Venner as a traditionalist Catholic!

Not surprising. The media avoid details that separate fact from fantasy.

The six-minute video below is mainly for French readers, though speech is at a minimum. It shows a homage to Venner that took place at Notre-Dame cathedral on Tuesday May 21. In the beginning, deputy Jacques Bompard, who is closely associated with Marine Le Pen, though not a member of the Front National, explains why he came to Notre-Dame to pay his respects to Dominique Venner. He believes Venner killed himself in protest against the decadence of French society, and even though he does not agree with the act itself he understands the motives and feels Venner was very affected by the demonstrations against gay marriage. The rising up of the people was a sight no one thought was possible. The second speaker is Julien Rochedy, of the Front National Youth Movement, who also warns that France will die unless there is an awakening. At the reporter's question he notes the various threats hovering over the country: destruction of values, immigration, loss of sovereignty. He notes that gay marriage is just one of many threatening issues and declares everyone should have a rebellious heart as Venner did.

The rest of the video is singing against a backdrop of lighted torches.

Suicide in the Cathedral

As you probably know, since it made world-wide headlines, French writer and historian Dominique Venner, 78,  committed suicide in Notre-Dame Cathedral, before the altar, in protest against the Islamization of France.

Dominique Venner was a critic of the Church, otherwise such an act would have been unthinkable. According to Le Salon Beige readers, he was a pagan whose final deed was in defiance of God's law and Church doctrine. Some readers express sympathy for this right-wing historian who had fought bravely for France during the Algerian War and who believed firmly that the cause of French Algeria was just.

Here is Venner's suicide letter, which may have already appeared in English somewhere:

I am of sound mind and body, and fulfilled by the love of my wife and children. I love life and expect nothing beyond, except the perpetuation of my race and my spirit. Yet, at the end of this life, before immense perils for my French and European homeland, I feel I have the duty to act while I still have the strength.

I believe it is necessary to sacrifice myself in order to break the lethargy that is crushing us. I offer what remains of my life for the purpose of a protest and a foundation. I have chosen a highly symbolic site, the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris that I respect and admire: the one that was built by the genius of my ancestors on sites of more ancient religions, as a reminder of our immemorial origins.

While so many men become slaves to their lives, my act symbolizes an ethic of the will. I take my own life in order to awaken sleeping consciences. I revolt against fate.

Note: The above reasoning reminds me of The Stranger by Albert Camus where Meursault commits a murder as an act of will, without any real purpose or motive. Venner says he has a purpose, but if he is concerned about his country, it is hard to see how his voluntary death, his absence, can help those who remain. A Christian must yield to the will of God, the Creator and Lawgiver; a non-believer turns the human will into a god, or yields to abominable Fate.

So, if he really wanted to "revolt against fate" he would have chosen to see this crisis through, by contributing his patriotism and his knowledge to the cause of France.

I revolt against the poisons of the soul and against the invading individuals who are destroying the identities that anchor us, notably the family, the intimate base of our millenia-old civilization. While I defend the identity of all peoples in their own lands, I also revolt against the crime that aims to replace our population.

Since the dominant viewpoint is not able to escape its toxic ambiguities, it is up to Europeans to draw the consequences of this. For want of an identitarian religion which could anchor us, we have, since Homer, our own shared memory, a storehouse of all the values on which we must recast our future renaissance, breaking with the metaphysical notion of unlimitedness, a deadly source of all modern perversities ("dérives").

I ask forgiveness from all those to whom my death will cause suffering, first my wife, my children, my grand-children, and then my friends and followers. But once the shock of the pain has subsided, I do not doubt that they will all understand the meaning of my act and will transcend their pain into pride. I hope that they will come together to endure. They will find in my recent writings the prefiguration and explanation of my act.

For more information write to my publisher Pierre-Guillaume de Roux. He was not informed about my decision, but he has known me for a long time.

Note: He is not a Christian believer, but he speaks of "forgiveness" and "transcendence". Of course, it is true, that such concepts preceded Christianity. Like Camus, he seems to be unable to make a final leap, not only of faith, but of reason. Reason that expands the consciousness beyond the material earth and comes to the realization that the innate laws of nature he wants to preserve were not put there by Man, only uncovered by him.

Below, the cathedral being evacuated.

May 18, 2013: An Appeal from the Manif Pour Tous

The Manif Pour Tous, on the occasion of the promulgating of the law known as "marriage for everyone", issued the following appeal to all Frenchmen concerned about the law and its consequences for France and for civiization:

This law consecrates the abolition of the fundamental principle of marriage between a man and a woman. It implies, through full adoption for everybody, that a child presumably can be born of two men or two women; it consecrates the law of gender despite the universal nature of feminine and masculine sexual identities. It is a major upheaval of civilization!

Note: "Gender" is a term imported to France from the United States. It refers to the fantasy that a baby is born "neutral" and is free to "choose" to be a man or a woman. This "gender theory" is now being taught in French schools. 

We have not ceased, for many months, alerting Monsieur Hollande about what the stakes are. We are profoundly offended by the arrogance and the contempt displayed for months both by the president of the Republic and the ministers, the legislators and the CESE.

Note: The CESE was the ethical, social and environmental council that refused to consider a petition signed by 700,000 opponents of the law.

Although they are elected by us, the citizens of France,  and are supposed to represent us, they have totally ignored the opposition of the majority of French people to this iniquitous law.

In their arrogance, they also ignored the numerous intermediary groups that expressed their opposition, among them: the National Union of Family Associations, the Academy of Medicine, and even the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences.

This abuse of power by an executive in the hands of an ultra-minority lobby weakens the institutions of the Fifth Republic.

This law, presented as a progress for homosexuals, will engender homophobia because it holds them responsible for the "right to a child" which implies "adoption for everyone."

Today the law is official. Has the last word been said? Must hope vanish? Is defeat definitive? No!

Our opposition movement, an immense groundswell, will not stop, for the simple reason that it is born of a profound, innate refusal of a law based on the lie that makes believe that a child could have two men or two women as parents.

Contrary to what has been said - another lie among many - this law concerns all Frenchmen because every human being, tomorrow, will be vulnerable to being deprived of a father or a mother.

Our movement is the profound expression of what a tremendous number of Frenchmen are feeling: the succession of generations, the future of humanity, can only be founded on a recognition of the reality of Man.

It is why we Frenchmen will never consent to the notion that there can be spontaneous generations!

We will never consent to Medically Assisted Procreation for everyone or the legalization of Surrogate Motherhood.

We will never consent to Monsieur Hollande using French institutions for the benefit of gender ideology which is the basis of the "marriage for everyone" law.

We refuse that French politics be dictated by a lobby that does not even represent the totality of homosexuals, much less the totality of French people.

We refuse that French politics turn away from the essentials: the urgent concerns of citizens who are facing today a dramatic economic and social situation.

We defend respect for true democracy: an upheaval of civilization such as this cannot be done if a debate with the totality of the French people is rejected. For it is clear that a debate within parliament alone or narrow circles such as the Constitutional Council is not sufficient for such a matter.

In recent history, there have been laws passed that were repealed or never applied.

For this law to be repealed, we call on all French citizens to mobilize more than ever before: Sunday, May 26, their presence is absolutely necessary. Not one Frenchman conscious of the scandal of this law can fail to respond to the appeal!

After that, we will continue without respite to defend marriage between a man and a woman, filiation of the father-mother-child, and the family: basic cell of all societies, a place for solidarity par excellence, a source of all human and economic wealth of society.

Whatever happens, the flame of French resistance must not be extinguished and will not be extinguished: it is summoned to become stronger and to deploy itself further. It will continue to build this dam which, alone, will stop the wave of plans that are doing harm to children, parents , families, to the education of the young, in other words, to the general interest, the future of society, democracy, the values of the French Republic, and respect for Man.

The battle lost today will be but a step towards Victory!

Future generations are counting on us.

We will never give up, never, never, never!

Vive la France!

Welfare extended - to immigrants

Marine Le Pen reacts to an Appeals Court decision regarding subsidies to children residing in France but born elsewhere. At the same time she points out that subsidies to French families are being cut:

A decision by the Appeals Court on April 5 extends to all children of immigrants the benefit of subsidies as part of the family policy entitlement. The court based its decision on agreements worked out by the European Union with Turkey and Algeria that forbid member States of the EU to require a document proving the legal entry of children into France, and - in particular for those children coming in under family reunification - a medical certificate issued by the French Office of Integration and Immigration, as conditions for receiving public assistance. Polygamous fathers residing on French territory can henceforth, legally, finance the needs of all their children in France. This decision comes at a time when the government is drastically reducing family subsidies to certain French families based on their income, a measure that will not only affect well-to-do families, but also an important part of the middle class.

It is striking to realize that immigration is the only area where a reduction in State and public expenditures is never envisaged! While the French people make more and more sacrifices in the name of an austerity policy that is strangling the working and middle classes, the most scandalous expenses linked to immigration are never questioned. Such is the case not only in the area of family entitlements, that will benefit polygamous families, but in National Health Care as well, since the AME (State Medical Assistance) is costing the Nation more and more while coverage for the French is forever diminishing and the cost of premiums rising.

This unnatural situation is the consequence of the insane European policies to which the French political class has submitted for years. The agreement between the EU and Algeria for example, signed in 2001 and implemented in 2005, that formed the basis for the Appeals Court's decision, has never been questioned by the UMP or the Socialists; on the contrary, it has been welcomed by governments of both left and right. Now it is a veritable troika UMP-PS-EU that we must denounce: the association of these three accomplices is having disastrous consequences for France and the French people.

This decision by the Appeals Court justifies two important propositions of Marine Le Pen's platform: a return to the primacy of national law, and the implementation of a policy of national priority, particularly in the area of family subsidies.

One reader at Le Salon Beige responds:

- It is urgent that we leave the European Commission that denies countries the right to decide for themselves. Viviane Reding, vice president of the European Commission declared to our National Assembly: "You must slowly but surely understand that there are no more internal national policies. There are only European policies shared in a common sovereignty." No reaction from our deputies, senators or president.

Marine Le Pen Injured

Marine Le Pen was seriously injured in a fall last week but the news has just been released to the press. There is some confusion over her condition because she has made television appearances since the accident, therefore she could not have broken her back. It appears to be a fractured sacrum that resulted from a fall in an empty swimming pool. Exactly how the accident happened is not clear.  Sarcastic readers' comments at Le Monde and even at le Figaro are a reminder that the animosity towards her has not slackened. Here is part of a report from Le Point:

It was Jean-Marie Le Pen who announced the news during a meeting in Limoges where he replaced the president of the Front National. "Marine could not come, because she has been the victim of a rather serious accident that is preventing her from going out. She fell in her empty pool and fractured her spinal column," explained Mr. Le Pen as an introduction to his speech in a municipal auditorium.

The president of the Front National tried to be reassuring when she posted on Twitter: "No panic! Fractured sacrum last week-end, it will be long and painful but nothing terrible! MLP."

The accident, which occurred a week ago, has forced Mme Le Pen to limit her travels, but does not prevent her from participating in meetings and making television appearances.

In a communiqué, the Front National confirmed that Marine Le Pen is suffering form a fractured sacrum that "will lead to a slight reduction in her schedule, but will not prevent her from continuing her activities." It "reassures the party members about the state of her health and thanks them for the many messages of sympathy that were addressed to her."

(…)

Note: A medical website explains:

 - Treatment for a sacral fracture may include rest, a donut pillow, narcotic pain medications, and nonsteroidal medications for pain. Surgery may be required to treat a severe sacral fracture.

Speedy recovery, Marine, France needs you! According to a poll conducted by the Huffington Post, a majority of Frenchmen believe that Marine Le Pen is better able to solve the problem of crime than either Nicolas Sarkozy or François Hollande. Below, the results showing that 31% of those questioned place their faith in Marine:

Taubira's Law is Constitutional

This will be the week that was. Next Sunday, May 26, the Manif Pour Tous will once again, assuming the weather is favorable, bring out huge crowds of protesters in an all-out effort to demand the repeal of Taubira's law. But the law has been judged constitutional by the Constitutional Council in a decision rendered on May 17. A decision that was expected but dreaded. Le Figaro reports:

The Constitutional Council validated the law authorizing marriage and adoption for homosexual couples, emphasizing nonetheless that the wording of the law does not recognize a "right to a child". Rather, the "interests of the child" must be the principle adhered to in any adoption agreement.

The "Wise Men" have determined that marriage was not contrary to "any constitutional principle": "This ruling affects neither the fundamental rights and freedoms, nor national sovereignty, nor the organization of public authority" and "cannot therefore constitute a fundamental principle," added the Council in its decision.

Note: The members of the Council are called "les Sages" ("Wise Men").

The Council made one stipulation: that henceforth the constitutional requirement of the "interests of the child" be applied in the granting of adoption by the general councils and in the decisions on adoption rendered by the courts.

Note: This means the "interests of the child" must be considered. It is almost a hint to the authorities not to allow adoption. At the very least it permits them to deny an adoption if they have doubts about the potential parents. But this must be true in any adoption, even one by a traditional couple.

On May 17, Christian Taubira visited Lyon and was greeted by noisy opponents. The video below shows the event:

The abject government of François Hollande

Catholic writer Bernard Antony demands the resignation of François Hollande following the post-soccer mayhem on Sunday that tore up the Champs-Elysées and the Trocadéro, leaving many people wounded and terrorized, and businesses destroyed.

All Frenchmen were able to see for themselves last night on every television channel the extent of abjection and ridicule that characterize Mr. Hollande's government, his minister of the Interior, his minister of Justice, as well as the grotesque posturing of the prefect of Paris.

Clearly, it is easier to use the riot police and mobile guards and hordes of cops in civilian clothes to repress the peaceful demonstrators of the Manif Pour Tous, by spraying women and children with dangerous tear gas. But the latter, in the eyes of the gang of sans-culottes who claim to govern us, were, it is true, guilty of crimes such as holding small pennants or flags on the end of derisory wooden sticks.

Those demonstrators never broke anything, never smashed windows, never burned cars. They were mistreated by the hundreds, apprehended, held in custody and even, for some, thrown in jail for two days for no reason at all.

We even watched as wretched executors of disgraceful orders, decked out in their armor everywhere, gleefully beat mothers in front of their children.

Last night it was a completely different ball game! To celebrate the victory of an athletic team, formerly Parisian but now owned by the Islamist State of Qatar, the fauna of thugs came to the party, in accordance with their usage and customs! And then, after hours of pillaging or setting fires, at their discretion, the eight hundred valiant cohorts of the Republic of Hollande, Valls, and Taubira, only managed to make twenty-one arrests!

True, those hooded young people were not "fascists" guilty of defending the family through reactionary acts as serious as pushing baby carriages with little French babies inside. Furthermore, last night we saw and heard at length the distinguished vice-president of SOS-Racism in charge of sports, the ineffable Hermann Ebongue, with his Afro coiffure artistically braided and his awkward speech, express his understanding of the cause of the "ultras" and at the same time his gratitude to Qatar. (Bizarre, you said bizarre?)

Note: I know little about Hermann Ebongue and nothing of the television appearance referred to. There is a photo of him here, minus the corn rows. "Ultras" must refer to the vandals and thugs.

The truth is that for Hermann Ebongue and his richly subsidized association, no more than for Lady Taubira, there is little cause for concern over a barbaric rampage obviously engendered by the most total racist contempt for France and the French.

AGRIF, of course, demands the dismissal of the prefect of Paris and also, because of their ever-increasing failures, of the ministers of the Interior and Justice. But the most necessary decision would be the one that Mr. François Hollande ought to make in the interests of France and his own interests: to resign, without waiting for it to become unavoidable.

Note: AGRIF, founded by Bernard Antony, provides legal support and aid to those ethnic Frenchmen and Catholics who are victims of discrimination and/or anti-white racism.

At the top, one of several photos from Le Parisien of the violent confrontations on May 12.

Below, a photo of two tourist buses attacked by thugs. From François Desouche.

Note: I will have to try to clarify a few things later. I had assumed all the violence took place Sunday night, but it seems the attacks at le Trocadéro (near the Eiffel Tower) took place on Monday afternoon. These were the attacks that involved tourist buses.

Some readers have suggested that this week-end's rampage was part of a pre-programmed attack on France by Islamic forces, and other enemies of France. Manuel Valls has ridiculously tried to compare the violence to the incidents that have occurred during the Manif Pour Tous. For him there is no difference. (Actually, there IS a difference: the Manif is much worse in his way of thinking, but he cannot quite bring himself to say that publicly.)

The passive, unperturbed, unmovable indifference at the highest level of government today is not very different from the passive unperturbed complacency of President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin in 2005 when the ghettos rampaged for days on end (October 27 - November 17 approx.), setting the stage for all future rampages, accelerating the Islamization of France, and forever paralyzing the police, under permanent orders to treat the vandals gently. Over nine thousand cars were burned, and Seine-Saint-Denis became more famous than the Latin Quarter. Below a map showing the "hot spots" of the 2005 riots. At the time, Nicolas Sarkozy was minister of the Interior.

Pillaging the heart of Paris...

The violence that followed the PSG victory on Sunday was worse than previously thought. Here is a communiqué from Marine Le Pen:

On the occasion of the celebration of the PSG championship, rampaging thugs pillaged the heart of Paris.

Barbarians with no connection to the fans left a countless number of victims: residents, merchants, tourists.

This raid committed with impunity was nonetheless predictable. It is the consequence of the impoverished mind of Interior Minister Manuel Valls, who should have banned this gathering, considering the eruptions that had taken place the night before. The problem with this minister is that, like his pathetic predecessors of the UMP, he cultivates a veritable State-sponsored policy of laxness.

Note: I have no information on what happened the night before.

These urban riots are a reminder that nothing has changed since those of 2005, and that France is seated on a volcano: at any moment, the situation can explode and extreme violence can be unleashed at innocent people.

It is clearly no longer possible to organize even the smallest event in the large French cities. The population is at the mercy of thugs who, far from being neutralized, have been assiduously protected by the ideological convictions of successive governments of both the right and left.

Marine Le Pen urges a revolt against this gangrene: we must prevail and apply zero tolerance against these thugs who feel they can do as they please on our territory.

Below, a short video, posted at François Desouche, showing some of the mayhem. In the beginning you see a yellow tourist bus that was attacked near the Eiffel Tower. The announcer says the vandals come in to pillage from the outskirts of Paris every time there is a popular event. There were dozens of wounded, numerous arrests and much damage done. The Paris prefect has announced that the PSG soccer team will no longer be allowed to celebrate in public.

Note: The team, per se, was not responsible. But the prefect has chosen to blame them instead of naming as guilty the thugs from the suburbs.

Reports also indicate that there were hardly any CRS (riot police) on the scene, especially at Trocadéro, near the Eiffel Tower, at the outset, but their numbers had increased greatly by the time the rioting was over. Therefore, some of the violence could have been prevented if there had been adequate security.

Ramage on the Champs-Elysées

If you read my preceding post you know that twenty persons who were doing nothing wrong were arrested on the Champs-Elysées a few days ago. In contrast, a violent rampage erupted on the same avenue Sunday night following the soccer victory of the PSG (Paris-Saint-Germain), but according to 24matins, the police dispersed the crowd. No mention is made here of arrests (see below for more).

Sunday evening many fans went to the Champs-Elysées to celebrate the victory of the PSG as champions of France, its first championship in nineteen years. But the crowds soon became disruptive: store fronts were smashed and there were confrontations with police. Vandals had mixed in with the fans and started trouble. Motor bikes were damaged, trash cans turned upside down and windows broken. The CRS (riot police) were there and intervened to disperse the crowds.

Note: The report is noticeably succinct and bland, as if this were no major event.

However, turn to François Desouche and you'll get another view of things. The photos below are examples:

And this short video gives an idea of the crowds and the noise, although violence is not obvious here. The France 2 journalist narrating says: 

"You have to forgive their excesses because they have been waiting for this for such long time…":



Twenty-one persons were eventually arrested including three vandals. Two of them had smashed windows and committed gang robbery, and the third had set fires.

Finally, a reminder that this PSG soccer team is owned by Qatar. It's one of many French institutions either owned outright or partially by the Emirate.

Arbitrary Arrests

Le Salon Beige reported the following on May 8:

About twenty persons, calmly walking on the Champs-Elysées this evening, without banners or slogans, were arrested by the police. No motive was given when they were forced to get into the police bus, not even that of illegal assembly. It seems to have been an arbitrary arrest, the crime of looking honest!

With no explanation, wallets and cell phones were confiscated. Some of the young persons were taken off the bus. No one knew why. Sixteen persons were then left in the bus. The police chief of the 16th arrondissement gave no reason for the arrests.

Note: At this point LSB gives two phone numbers for those who wish to call the police.

Three persons were taken to the Châtelet headquarters. We repeat that there was nothing distinctive about them. A lawyer was contacted. Eight persons were sent to police headquarters in the 16th arrondissement. The others were sent to different destinations!

Some opponents of Taubira's law immediately went to Châtelet to demand an explanation.

Below, the captives inside the bus:

Note: LSB posted an update on May 9:

Having shown their ID's, they were all released after three or four hours of arbitrary detention. Lawsuits are being initiated.

Note: There are no fewer than 84 comments to this article with references to gulags, Stalin, Himmler, etc… as well as reports by those readers who took the time to call the police. It seems the stressed-out police are confused and beginning to lose their self-control.

- Our country is being transformed into a dictatorship. Thank you for giving us news of this matter. I hope that complaints will be filed and that our deputies will react. If we don't react to this abuse of power it will get worse. If the people are anesthetized, the cat will be set among the pigeons.

- Is this the Gulag Archipelago? It sounds vey much like Alexander Solzhenitsyn. An arbitrary arrest, then ten years in the camp! Holland is the worst kind of Stalinist. He is not legitimate. (…)

- Everyone who called the police at Châtelet report that they are jittery I cannot judge myself but it confirms that the men are tense. The tension has been going on for seven long months in unusual circumstances. Clearly things can move rapidly because police blunders are multiplying, which is a sign of weakness. The fruit is ripe.

Surprisingly, Le Figaro also reported the story, giving a much wider audience access to news of the arrests, and underscoring the tremendous effect the protest movement is having on the media, the police and (we can assume) the powers that be. According to this article, a spokesman for the prefect admitted that they had spotted a young person wearing the Manif Pour Tous sweatshirt. The twenty young persons were arrested because they were dangerously close to Elysée Palace:

"They separated into two groups: one group was blocked at the rond-point des Champs-Elysées, another was arrested on avenue Gabriel."

"For two or three weeks, we have performed similar actions," justified the prefect's spokesman. "The day before yesterday, for example, they blocked rue de Rivoli for ten minutes. About fifteen of them were arrested. We're just doing our job: we cannot allow young persons to walk twenty yards from Elysée Palace".

Le Figaro has no fewer than 364 comments! These too make references to places like Uzbekistan, North Korea, and other "democracies". Many note that on May 26, date of the next massive demonstration, the police will have a hard time arresting everyone wearing a Manif sweatshirt.

Police Action in Caen

There are numerous reports of arbitrary attacks and arrests by the police. Le Salon Beige reported on May 7 that a woman, accompanied by her children, was beaten (above) by the police while she and a small number of protestors demonstrated on the occasion of the arrival at a school of Mme George Pau-Langevin, minister of Educational Outcomes. The woman had a megaphone and stood about hundred yards away from the security personnel:

Suddenly, the police chief, without warning, ordered about thirty riot police to push the demonstrators even further. Police in civilian dress also came and charged like a steam roller! The chief insulted a mother with her children, calling her a coward. They hit her haphazardly with  sticks, and four policemen in civilian dress literally fell on top of her, rolled her over and beat her on the ground, as her children watched! A young man, 16, could take no more and called the police "b..….s", then sat down on a bench with his friends. Fifteen minutes later the police in civilian dress arrested the sixteen-year-old. They put him in handcuffs and took him to headquarters.

The video below shows what happened. The text reads:

Hérouville Saint-Clair, suburb of Caen, May 6, 2013. The Manif Pour Tous of Calvados is ready to welcome George Pau-Langevin, minister of Educational Outcomes, at the exit of an "experimental middle-school". The regional leader of the Manif Pour Tous had organized the demonstration. It was authorized by the prefect.

Then, the images begin:

It is 4:47 p.m. and it is forbidden to film the scene. At 4:49, the adjunct police chief tries to ban the megaphone. 4:50 p.m. - he doesn't hesitate to shove the protestors against the barrier. The demonstrators are few in number and peaceful. The CRS (riot police), on the other hand… At 5:42 p.m. the riot police are ordered to push back the crowd. At 5:44 the police action becomes more intense. By 5:45 p.m. it is intolerable. At 5:48 p.m. (1'55" into the video) the woman with the megaphone is knocked to the ground by police in civilian dress. (She screams). All that for a megaphone.



Reminder: Small groups of protestors demonstrating against the law that legalizes "marriage for everybody" gather whenever a minister or public official makes an appearance. Their purpose is to continue to make known their opposition to Taubira's law. These groups, known as "welcoming committees", usually announce their plans ahead of time to receive official authorization.

May 8, 2013 - Few remember

Just a word about yesterday's "ceremony" on the Champs-Elysées, commemorating the May 8, 1945 victory over Nazism when Germany finally surrendered. While members of the government were there, including of course the president of the French Republic, and invited guest Bronislaw Komorowski, president of Poland, the French people did not show up. True, it was drizzling, but that rarely stops a crowd from attending a celebration. According to Le Figaro's readers the French people were not ignoring the anniversary of May 8, they were ignoring their leader whom they now regard as a non-entity:

- The crowd was in proportion to the mediocrity of the Chief Executive. He no longer represents the French.

- Remember, too, the reality of the total unpopularity of our null and void leaders.

- What awaits Hollande, after this fall in the polls, is the greatest indifference, similar to those presidents of the Fourth Republic who inaugurated chrysanthemums. Even with just 10% popularity, he will stay until the end of his term! Alas! His authority is collapsing, the, the Socialist Party will get the greatest licking in its history in the municipal elections and will explode. The situation in France will worsen even more. But so what? He remains stoic, trapped, ill at ease in all circumstances… Four years will be a long time!

- Hollande the Inept will perhaps understand that he must resign. The French People don't want to see him any more. But it must have made the Polish guests laugh at the sight of the empty avenue…

- Manuel Gaz (i.e., Interior Minister Manuel Valls) and his propaganda service counted three million four hundred thousand persons...

- What a shameful thing for France and Europe to still commemorate May 8. In the context of a European entente, it's a joke.

Note: According to Le Figaro, the date became a holiday in 1953. President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing abolished it in 1974 during the rapprochement with Germany that would be so critical in the formation of the E.U. But it was François Mitterrand, also a devoted advocate of Europe, who reinstated the date.

- This is just the beginning. We'll have to boycott July 14 also.

Note: Personally, I find this pathetic. Nobody shows up and the president of France is clueless. It may be asking too much of people to continuously remember a date most of them did not live through. These events have to be part of their upbringing and their education for any sense of history to be preserved. 

Below, a great historic video from May 11, 1945, three days after the surrender. Another age, another culture, another planet, almost. The crowds are astounding, the happiness tangible, and De Gaulle, like him or hate him, is a welcome sight.



Photo at top from Les Echos.

AQIM threatens France

The organization known as AQIM (al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb) has released a video in which it threatens to attack French interests throughout the world. Huffington Post reports:

Denouncing the "crusade led by France against Muslims" and "the occupation by France of a land of Islam", referring to Mali, Abou Obeida Youssef al-Annabi, chief of the Council of Notables of AQIM, calls on Muslims to "mobilize" and to wage "jihad".

In this message dated April 25, he exhorts "Muslims throughout the world" to "attack French interests everywhere, for since the first day of the aggression they have become legitimate targets." He was making a reference to the French military intervention in Mali in January.

François Hollande reacted to the threat in a press conference:

"We are taking the question of a threat reiterated by AQIM seriously. We inflicted considerable losses on AQIM during our intervention in Mali, but the AQIM network exists outside of Mali. We therefore believe that we must continue both the intervention in Mali for as long as necessary - even with a reduced presence - and the maintenance of vigilance around Mali, in order to pursue the fight against terrorism. But we must also protect our installations and that was the order I gave so that we are not victims of some AQIM operation. I remind you, though I am not making a connection, that there was an attack against our interests in Tripoli, so the terrorist threat did not disappear. This is why we want it to be stymied by the ensemble of Europeans."

France began the withdrawal of some 4500 soldiers from Mali and their replacement by MISMA soldiers from other African countries.

Note: MISMA is the International mission of support for Mali.

A thousand French troops will remain beyond 2013 to support, if need be, the U.N. forces who will replace MISMA.

Note: I have little military knowledge, but this sounds awkward. The French, who have done the lion's share of the fighting (and very well, reports say), are being replaced by Africans who will be replaced by the U.N. in a kind of relay system. Those thousand Frenchmen remaining in Mali will have their hands full, I fear.

Huffington Post had also published the AQIM video, but it has been removed by YouTube. Not surprising, considering it's an overt threat, and incriminating to Muslims (and possibly dangerous to France for security reasons.)

At the top, a French convoy heads for the city of Gao last February 7.

Below, from RFI a screenshot from the video that was removed, showing the logo of al-Andalus. The man in the turban is presumably Abou Obeida Youssef-al-Annabi.

For adoption, against marriage

Deneuve contre le "mariage pour tous" by LeHuffPost

Catherine Deneuve is against "Marriage for Everyone". But her reasons are cynical and useless to the cause of French traditionalists. In the video the still-beautiful actress is supportive of homosexual adoption (without marriage) and indifferent to marriage in general:

- (...) It left me a bit perplexed. I would have preferred them to improve considerably the PACS and to allow adoption for homosexuals. People marry a lot and divorce a lot. So eventually, it may become  a  frightening situation. There are very few children at school with a father and a mother.

- It's a question of rights.

- Yes, but they could have just as easily improved the PACS so that the rights would be the same.  Why marry when everyone is divorcing? It's bizarre. But the issue of rights could be settled differently without marriage.

Reminder: The PACS is the existing civil union agreement for heterosexual and homosexual couples. Adoption is a complex question. The PACS allows for adoption, but only by an individual. The couple, as a couple, cannot adopt. Filiation is established through the person who is adopting. That person alone has parental authority.

Note: I have always found Catherine Deneuve to be exquisitely beautiful, even as she aged. But there was a cold-blooded cynicism in her look and her words in this video that betray her lack of connection to or affection for traditional France, traditional Western civilization and traditional morality. While it is true that people marry and divorce frivolously, this is not a reason for throwing gasoline on the fire. Being a woman with two illegitimate children, and no interest in marriage (she was married once, and wore black, presumably to show off her disregard for convention) she could not bring herself to endorse a family values program that would attempt to strengthen marriage and in-wedlock birth, encourage young couples to stay together, and restore the teaching of French culture in the schools to better revive a feeling of national identity and personal responsibility. She does none of that. It is not in her nature. Instead she advocates adoption for anyone, and marriage for no one, essentially in line with François Hollande's thinking.

We have always known that celebrities often live more turbulent personal lives than the rest of us. In recent decades that has changed and what the general population does today makes the Hollywood stars of yesteryear look like stodgy stay-at-homes. But the fact that "everybody does it" does not make it right. For a famous personality to say that it does is cause for concern. What makes her think that a gay couple joined by the PACS will not do as much harm to the child as a married couple who divorces? And what makes her think that PACS couples will not separate, leaving as much, if not more, destruction behind as those who divorce?

Not My President

Another one of many new groups forming in France is the collective called Hollande n'est pas mon Président ("Hollande is not my president"). Here is their communiqué that arrived a few days ago in my mailbox. It is also posted at Les 4 Vérités.

Barely two days from the anniversary of François Hollande's accession to power, but especially on the eve of demonstrations throughout all of France that strongly question the policies adopted by the government, the group Pas Mon Président is once again making its voice heard.

Note: The anniversary in question was May 6. The demonstrations took place May 5.

Almost one year ago, François Hollande was elected President of the French Republic by a minority of Frenchmen.

From the first day of his election, we launched the Hollande n'est pas mon président campaign and declared that François Hollande did not have the legitimacy to make the profound reforms his winning party claimed it would make.

The minority that believed in Hollande is now the last holdout before the fall.

In addition to his record unpopularity, a poll has shown that if the election were to be held today, François Hollande would not even qualify for the second round.

Hunkered down in his bunker and surrounded by a few faithful ideologues, François Hollande is more and more disconnected from reality.

Incapable of resolving the economic crisis, champion of Unemployment for Everybody, beset by crises, scandals and corruption, scorning the anger of the people, it will have taken only twelve months for François Hollande to have proved to everyone what we already knew in May 2012: he is incapable of leading the nation.

So it is not a question of a mere ministerial overhaul, or even the dissolution of the National Assembly. Only the resignation of François Hollande is acceptable.

Faced with Socialist chaos, we urge all Frenchmen, of whatever partisan stripe, to relay and to broadcast our new campaign: Dégage! ("Get out")

Beginning next week we will reveal the particulars of this new campaign.