Nicolas Dupont-Aignan: “What is at stake is saving France”

Nicolas Dupont-Aignan is the leader of a small Gaullist party in France. His party is not negligible — it received almost 5% of the vote in the first round of the presidential election. It represents one of the traditional platforms of the French Right: the political heirs of General Charles de Gaulle.

In the following report from French television, Mr. Dupont-Aignan announces that he and his party will support Marine Le Pen in the coming second round of the presidential election. This is a significant moment in Western European politics — as far as I know, it is the first instance in which the leader of a substantial establishment party has thrown his weight behind an anti-immigration party. In every other case — the AfD, Sverigedemokraterna, the PVV, the FPÖ, the Finns — the cordon sanitaire has held, and the other parties have absolutely refused to have anything to do with the “xenophobes”.

This may make for a more interesting French run-off than I thought we would see.

Many thanks to Ava Lon for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

00:00   During the presidential election we heard the declaration by Jean-Luc Mélenchon on his choice
00:04   for the second round. Another declaration today — the one from Nicolas Dupont-Aignan
00:08   candidate of Debout la France! [France Get Up!], who obtained, I remind you, 4.7%
00:12   of the vote in the first round. Today he revived his National Comity, and he’s our guest.
00:16   Good evening, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan. Thank you for being with us tonight. —Good evening,
00:19   Laurent de la Housse. —Can you confirm that you met Marine Le Pen last night? —Of course.
00:24   What did you talk about? Have you made your choice? Are you going to support her?
00:28   First of all, I would like to say that almost two million French people trust us
00:32   as Gaullists, humanists with a beautiful patriotic project
00:36   of making the nation great again. I could have, seriously,
00:40   done what many political personalities did:
00:44   wash my hands of the second round. It’s in my personal interest
00:48   to do what I’m doing; it’s in the interest of my party.
00:52   Incidentally, my party has never given voting instructions.
00:56   I think that France is at a crossroads.
01:00   I think that our country
01:04   is in bad shape; it survived five terrible years of François Hollande,
01:08   and I think that Emmanuel Macron
01:12   is Hollande to tenth power. Manufactured by financial interests,
01:16   by media interests, and all that is being done to impose him
01:20   as the leader of this country. —So, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan,
01:24   your choice will clearly be Marine Le Pen? —No, it doesn’t work like that. I thought a lot…
01:28   Besides, I saw the Republican leaders
01:32   who shocked people on the right — after having fought Monsieur Macron —
01:36   by making him their ally. All those who over the last thirty years failed in France
01:40   are with Monsieur Macron, and it’s understandable, because he wants to continue the same policies.
01:44   So before us we have Mme Le Pen — and I’m getting there: I saw her;
01:48   because I told myself that I had two options: either I would wash my hands
01:52   of the future of my country, and I have never done that in my political career.
01:56   I left the UMP after the 2005 referendum [when France said NO to the EU constitution] was trampled.
02:01   I have always made prominent the idea of France: mine, the one that I love;
02:05   and I said, I cannot call for voting for Madame Le Pen
02:09   without seeing her and without discussing with her a government project.
02:13   So you have had a governing agreement with Marine Le Pen?
02:17   And without seeing if Marine Le Pen wants
02:21   to extend her majority, to greet
02:25   in a true partnership, in an alliance — Gaullists and
02:29   Humanists, and cause her project to evolve. —So, excuse me Nicolas Dupont-Aignan. —And I insist,
02:33   it is very serious, Monsieur de la Housse… —I know it’s serious… —I am getting there.
02:37   we talked a lot this week. I took my time. I consulted twice
02:41   with my National Council. —Which hasn’t decided anything. —Oh, it did!
02:45   And which gave me a mandate to make this negotiation work.
02:49   And we signed a governing agreement. With an evolution
02:53   of her program, with some clarifications,
02:57   directions, and even updates of my presidential program. Because what is at stake
03:01   is not about turning towards Madame Le Pen;
03:05   what is at stake is saving France. —It means, what you are announcing tonight,
03:09   you wish the victory of Marine Le Pen —Tonight I’m officially announcing that
03:13   I will be supporting Marine Le Pen, that I will be campaigning
03:17   with her on an enlarged government project,
03:21   and I am also announcing, that we will — and I am telling this to the French people who
03:25   come to us especially from the right and who were betrayed by the leaders of the right —
03:29   that we have an opportunity to end an absurd fracture
03:33   between patriots and republicans. And I am insisting on one point,
03:37   Monsieur de la Housse, because it’s absolutely vital for the future of our country,
03:41   if we want to save it. It’s that this alliance is necessary.
03:45   My party, for example — Debout la France! — will carry on in the next legislative elections;
03:49   It will have its candidates everywhere. The French people will have a choice.
03:53   They won’t have a National Front candidate before of them? —No, it’s not true. —It’s a question;
03:57   there will be candidates from Debout la France! facing candidates from the National Front,
04:01   meaning that French people will retain the choice between two patriotisms,
04:05   Just as they had in the first round of the presidential election; but in the second round,
04:09   where there is a choice between continuing the policies of de-localisation,
04:14   of social regression, of the power of the banks,
04:18   of the power of an absurd Europe, which made us poor. With Mme Le Pen
04:22   I am offering, I think, a beautiful project for France —Your discussion with Mme Le Pen is based on
04:26   an electoral agreement, she will pay the expenses of your campaign… —Certainly not! —
04:30   It’s a question — Certainly NOT! It’s not about money. I am cautious. —Another question…
04:34   …cautious and thrifty! —Another question! —I insist! I am saying that
04:38   I will vote for Marine Le Pen and that I will support her! —Monsieur Dupont-Aignan, you have
04:42   a political past, you said it: Gaullist, Humanist.
04:46   Aren’t you betraying this past today?
04:50   Is Gaullism compatible with the right-wing extremism? In the eyes of the History the answer
04:54   is NO. —Madame Le Pen isn’t a right-wing extremist to me.
04:58   I’m telling you: I am a Gaullist, and General de Gaulle
05:02   saved France twice, meaning he gave her back her independence:
05:06   Against Germans, during the war, and he reformed, straightened out the country in 1958.
05:10   So tonight you are joining the extreme right wing. —I am not joining extreme right wing in any way.
05:14   I am a Gaullist; my political party will be allied
05:18   with Madame Le Pen, and I am convinced that
05:22   Madame Le Pen will, with my support and with the balanced alliance
05:26   With Gaullists and Humanists, and I think that many will
05:30   join us from the republican side, change French politics. —Are you seriously thinking
05:34   that for example, that General de Gaulle could utter this slogan: “France for the French”?
05:38   But General de Gaulle saved France and gave it back to the French!
05:42   And General de Gaulle saved
05:46   France, and would never do “basket politics”. Do you remember that saying?
05:50   For those who don’t know, “the basket” used to be the Paris stock exchange.
05:54   Well, I am not going to hand France to Paris Stock Exchange, in other words: to Monsieur Macron,
05:58   who is leading it against the French people, the working class,
06:02   the farmers ; and I tell you, this new alliance
06:06   offers a totally new horizon in French political life! —Thank you, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan,
06:11   for coming and talking to us about all this tonight — Thank you.
 

7 thoughts on “Nicolas Dupont-Aignan: “What is at stake is saving France”

  1. She has a small chance of making it.
    A very small chance.

    She’s not good in many ways. She’s an economic nightmare.
    But economic problems can be fixed. Future demographic ones probably can’t.

    From that line of thinking, I would consider that she’s probably the least bad.
    It’s possible that many French will think the same.

    Though I suspect that they won’t.

    I predict that she will get 38% of the vote.

    I predict that the Macron-led government will increase immigration and naturalisations, in order to ensure a victory the next time around.

    I predict that she will nonetheless get a slightly higher percentage the next time around.

    By then, there will probably be widespread civil strife in parts of France.

    I suspect that if she doesn’t win this election, the prospects for a peaceful internal solution in France will become much more limited.

    • I disagree entirely.Macron is the creature of the left wing media ,the Islamists and financial interests who wish to impose him on France.He wants to hand France over to “the basket”(the Paris stock exchange).
      He wants to lead France to disaster ,and feed on her carcass like a vulture.

      He wants globalization and mass migration leading to :depressed wages for French people ,massive unemployment of the native French ,total collapse of the social safety net ,destruction of French culture ,French values ,French way of life ,balkanization increased terrorism and crime and civil war.

      He represents the policies of all the leaders who have betrayed France over the last 30 years.He is Hollande to the power of ten.He represents the French establishment uniparty , the same failed policies.

      Macron represents more of the same.

      Marine Le Pen is the Trump of France.Republican voters who are capable of critical thought ,who examine their consciences ,who do not swallow wholesale the pablum feed to them by left wing media will vote for her.

      • Marine Le Pen is the Putin of France.
        however, it is still better than Islam and tribal invasions.
        social dynamics in Russia hints at fast approachind downfall of Putin.
        social dynamics in Islamic world is horror without end.

  2. We should all be ” ROOTIN FOR PUTIN ” by praying the Le Pen is not defeated by ignorant voters. The clarity of her warnings about the demographic time bomb embodied in Muslim aliens who were inserted into France should be evident to anyone with an IQ above room temperature. If the majority of French voters abandon her ; they deserve what is in store for them. Putin appears to be the only level headed leader in the world today. The actor Trump still has not attempted to make good on his important campaign promises. When will Hillary be indicted ??. Where is the Wall ??. Stay out of military adventures ??.

  3. No the FPÖ was one time together with another party the goverment.
    Also in some Austrian States they worjk together with the SPÖ(Left)and the ÖVP(Conservative).

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