European nations are defined by a shared culture and history, not by some nebulous "common values." Nobody knows or cares what "French values" or "German values" are because only politicians and pundits use or allegedly think in those terms. In contrast, French people are fairly well-defined as a cultural, historical, and political entity. This is what Le Pen's party wishes to conserve. The notion that anyone can become a westerner by ordering a Big Mac and putting on a T-shirt with a catchy slogan is a myth peddled by those (again, only politicians and pundits) who believe that nations are really propositions rather than entities with a culture and a history.
To illustrate how absurd propositionalism is: imagine you could put together an exhaustive list of "French values" that define a Frenchman. Now let's take someone in Japan who has never set foot in France and doesn't intend to, but he subscribes to this exhaustive list of "French values." By this definition, is that hypothetical person in Japan now a Frenchman?
Great post,and you are correct.
Japanese who - as a matter of mere opinion - share French values aren't French, but any of them who would sacrifice their time and effort to come to France and participate in their institutions - and agree to risk their lives to defend them - can become French.
To build on another example I used, if Bobby Jindal were just some guy living in the Punjab who basically agreed with the US Constitution and American values in the abstract, it wouldn't make him an American.
It's the fact that his family wanted to come here and adopt and embrace American principles and values - and that he fully embraced US culture even more deeply - which makes his family an American family and not a Punjabi family.