Good News For France—Bad News For The Front National

Sunday’s elections in France have seen Jean-Marie Le Pen’s Front National vote drop to 4.3%, its worst performance since the early 1980s. Even though this still represents nearly two million French people, it is disappointing to that party, even if it comes in a dramatically reduced turnout. Our commiserations to the Front National, and know that they will understand that those who persist, will ultimately win.

However, the news from France is not all bad. In fact, the estimated 46 percent of the vote polled by Nicholas Sarkozy’s UMP, represents a victory for Jean-Marie le Pen, as Sarkozy has effectively stolen his clothes, rhetoric and, as he promises, much of the FN’s policies. It is the ultimate affirmation of the Le Pen-isation of French politics.

Immediately upon winning the presidential election, Sarkozy set in motion changes which will, over the short term at least, buy France more time. Sarkzoy has created a Ministry of Immigration, appointing Brice Hortefeux as its minister.

Hortefeux has already set tough new quotas for the number of illegal immigrants the new ministry must arrest and expel each month. He said his goal is to effect 25,000 expulsions by the end of 2007 and arrest no less than 125,000 illegal immigrants in the same period.

Voluntary repatriation

Hortefeux has also announced that his ministry will start actively promoting the already existing French policy of voluntary repatriation, setting the number of paid departures at 2,500 for this year. Those immigrants volunteering to leave are given a fixed sum of money, normally £2,500 per couple, with £750 each for the first three children—not a bad deal for any illegal just managing to set foot in France.

Sarkozy’s election win is therefore good news in three senses:

1. It has shown that a majority of the French electorate have voted in favour of France’s survival and against that nation being overwhelmed by Third World immigrants, legal or illegal;

2. If Sarkozy carries through with his policies, it will buy France valuable time and will, at the very least, slow down the Third World immigration invasion; and

3. If Sarkozy does not deliver as promised (a not unusual trick for conservatives), then the opportunity for the Front National to regain lost ground and become a major player, will loom large as the electorate has already endorsed the essential elements of their policies.

Which ever way it goes, nationalists all over the world will rest assured to know that France has chosen to live.