Posted on 01/13/2006 3:32:28 AM PST by beaversmom
PARIS -- The French have had two months to sort out the lessons of last fall's riots in predominately Muslim neighborhoods. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin says the rioting was caused by racial bias, lack of business opportunity and insufficient education for immigrant children. He vows tax breaks for business, better education for immigrant children and tougher enforcement of anti-bias laws. For this conclusion, the French media, more left wing than the American press, praised him.
The founder of France's Front National (FN) party, 77-year-old Jean-Marie Le Pen, has reached the opposite conclusion, as might be expected of a man who has warned for decades about the dangers of unrestrained immigration.
Le Pen claims that the French media marginalized him, even during the riots, though FN has made immigration the center of its platform. During a recent interview with me at his home, Le Pen said, ``The politically correct forbids any link be established between immigration and the riots. Everybody knows it, but you can't say it.''
To Le Pen, the facts are indisputable. The migration of Muslims to France since the 1950s from Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Senegal is larger than any other influx in France's history. New immigrants are young and have a higher birth rate than the French. There are about 200,000 abortions a year in France, and the government has begun offering to pay French women to have more babies. At current rates, the Muslim population in France will grow from its current 8 percent to a majority in 25 years. French culture, possibly French secularism and liberty, cannot be sustained in the face of such demographic facts.
If he should become president, he said that he would immediately stop all immigration and ''change the law of nationality'' so that being born in France does not automatically make one a French citizen. He also would make it more difficult for an immigrant to bring all of his or her relatives to France, as is now allowed.
Le Pen -- who has been called a fascist, racist, xenophobe and other things that cannot be printed here -- says, ``We are currently subsidizing everybody, including the illegals. It is costing us the equivalent of $500 billion annually.''
Le Pen fears that not only France, ``but all of Europe will be submerged by all these people if nothing is done. There are no jobs for them and most won't work, preferring a government check. Many live by dealing in drugs, or stealing. They have created their own ghettos. We have places where there are no schools, because they have set them afire and the police and firemen are attacked when they go there. Civilization is slowly evaporating from this country.''
France is dangerously close to the point where correction of the problem will ot be possible. The same is true for a lot of other "first"-world countries.
When you defend your country from the enemies without, you have solved only half (maybe less) of the problem.
France is done. Holland is next. The remainder of Europe will follow. Nothing can stop it. Canada will survive because the USA will not allow it to become another Europe for reasons having to do with economics and security.
Expect le Pen to do well if he stands for elected office again
Le Pen is right.
I read a novel about "Camp of the Saints." It appears to be coming true, although through a slow kill.
I trust you have bought your prayer rug and Koran. Happy Islamic Republique!
It is up to the French people to help themselves. The United States is sick and tired of helping Europe out.
Well you are right but I don't get the point, I am not asking for help?! And nor is the majority of french people
The point is that after 2 world wars and millions of people killed, there should be a minimal amount of knowledge learned by Europeans. France is going to need help again. The next time Americans are involved, we are going to take over everything. We are angry and mad that you can't take care of your own affairs after all the previous deaths.
I just had the distinct displeasure of passing thgough your country last week (again.)
Once again, I was touched by the warmth and hospitality I received from the French people. (NOT.)
Why are your people so hostile, anyway? The only crime Americans have committed agains the French is bailing them out of their problems militarily time and time again.
Welcome to FR.
You are woefully misinformed. Do you only read leftist journalism and believe everything it says?
How do you think we got mixed up in Vietnam anyway? Do some research.
As for Iraq, I don't think seeing people being freed from a dictatorship and being allowed to elect their own leaders for the fist time in over half a century a "mess."
But I can see where freedom-hating socialists would think that.
And believe me, if France were to be attacked by a rogue nation, you'd be begging for our help in a heartbeat. France does not have what it takes to defend itself. 20th century history has proven that.
I do. Francois Mitterand attributed the post Rodney King riots to an "absence of social legislation and protection" in the US.
The mess we left in Vietnam? Similar to the mess we inherited from the French.
You're not asking for help now, but you will. Educate yourself before spouting platitudes.
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