French President Emmanuel “Toy Boy” Macron has organized a series of public appearances across France that are being billed as a “National Debate”. His willingness to show his face in public where he can be confronted by critics is reportedly in response to the unprecedented street protests by the Yellow Vest movement, which have been going on every weekend since November.
Edwige Diaz is a Regional Counselor for Rassemblement National (National Rally, formerly Front National). In the following video Ms. Diaz asks the president questions about FGM, mass Muslim immigration, and the implementation of sharia in French ghettos. I don’t have any illusions about this having any measurable effect on Mr. Macron; still, it’s bracing to hear a head of state or government having to sit through such pointed questions. To my knowledge, Theresa May and Angela Merkel have never had to endure anything similar.
Many thanks to Ava Lon for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:
Video transcript:
| 00:00 | Edwige Diaz questions Macron on immigration —Yes, good evening, thank you, I’m happy | |
| 00:03 | to be able to talk because I learned through the press a minute ago that Mr. Macron | |
| 00:06 | was organizing a debate tomorrow with the representatives of the Republic, and despite my mandate | |
| 00:09 | as a Regional Councilor, unfortunately I haven’t been invited. | |
| 00:12 | So, I would like to tell you that we estimate | |
| 00:16 | the number of women in France who underwent the FGM at about 60,000. | |
| 00:20 | The judicial court in Bordeaux is inundated by cases | |
| 00:24 | of delinquency, violence and rape committed by | |
| 00:28 | migrants, and worse, in some neighborhoods | |
| 00:32 | sharia law is being applied. So all that isn’t really | |
| 00:36 | part of our cultural codes, so here’s my question, which I’m addressing to | |
| 00:40 | Madame Minister, since you were the one who was invited here tonight, | |
| 00:44 | and finally we have heard little from you: so, while immigration | |
| 00:48 | calls into question the freedom and the fundamental rights | |
| 00:52 | of French women, and since more than half of the French people think | |
| 00:56 | that there is too much immigration, why don’t you | |
| 01:00 | propose a referendum on that question? Are you afraid of the answer? | |
| 01:04 | It concerns your party, Thierry Mariani: one representative gets up, takes the floor and doesn’t | |
| 01:09 | want to say that she’s a member of the National Rally [Le Pen’s party]. She is asked about that | |
| 01:12 | because it’s the rule of the meeting, look what’s going on: —I think, Madame, | |
| 01:16 | we are waiting for your political “tag”. —Why? Is it discrimination? | |
| 01:21 | No this information [unintelligible]… —Representative of the Republic is a representative | |
| 01:24 | of the Republic. —Yes, I am Madame Diaz, yes, correct, | |
| 01:29 | from the National Rally. —Thank you for specifying. | |
| 01:33 | …like eleven million French people, Madame. So, if it was a debate that was forbidden | |
| 01:37 | to voters of the National Rally, in such a case you should have said so, but you should have said it | |
| 01:41 | openly. —Madame, it’s not exactly our the subject , we just signaled at the beginning | |
| 01:45 | that the representatives had to specify their mandates and their tags. — I have introduced myself: | |
| 01:48 | Regional Counselor, National Rally, Nouvelle-Aquitaine. —No, you haven’t said ‘National Rally’, | |
| 01:51 | but it was important to specify it. —Why? Is it a problem? Is it a problem? —What do we do there? | |
| 01:57 | Well, if it’s not a problem… —No, it’s not a problem, the rules… —then I don’t know | |
| 02:00 | why I have been attacked like that. I’m being called | |
| 02:03 | from another end of the room because of a lack of correction. It’s like that. I’m asked to repeat, | |
| 02:06 | so yes, I’m from the National Rally, like eleven million French people. | |
| 02:09 | Voilà, it clearly wasn’t a Long Quiet River [allusion to movie: Life is a Long Quiet River]. | |
| 02:13 | during those three and a half hours. |
So what happened next?
Did Minister Mariani answer the questions asked by a representative of 11 million French voters?
Was the further interaction televised? Is it possible for GoV to provide a follow-up link ifo so?