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Simon Denis
Simon Denis
2 years ago

A fascinating article. But I should like to pick up on one point – the great replacement. Surely its denial is just another instance of our masters’ taste for Orwellian mind games? On the one hand, when it finally emerges that a city such as London is no more than forty per cent white, it’s champagne all round – we’re all obliged to “celebrate diversity” and woe betide the long face. But when some of us remark that this bespeaks levels of migration likely to “swamp” – to use Mrs Thatcher’s term – the indigenous people, the “debate” is hastily closed down. Of course, the all powerful left is not standing still. To make it impossible to notice, far less to discuss or object to these developments, words such as indigenous, native, local and so forth are queried, declared “problematic” and ruled out of bounds. Authoritarian relativism – the only kind, since in the absence of truth one only has orthodoxy – makes it so easy to peddle hyper-sophisticated points about “perception” in the name of atavistic, dictatorial brutality: the world of “1984”.

D Glover
D Glover
2 years ago
Reply to  Simon Denis

In the 1960s the line was; ‘immigrants are few, and will always be a small minority’
In the 2020s the line is ‘Diversity is our strength’
They don’t tell you you’re becoming a minority until you are one, and then there’s nothing at all you can do about it. Powell saw this, and the working class loved him, but he had no party for them to vote for.

SULPICIA LEPIDINA
SULPICIA LEPIDINA
2 years ago
Reply to  D Glover

I had no idea you were a disciple of Enoch, given your previous protestations!

What about Mr Lawrence Fox & Co?

Frederick B
Frederick B
2 years ago
Reply to  D Glover

White British births are close to a minority already in England, but the figures are never mentioned in the media. It takes a race and immigration obsessive (me) to dig them out of the depths of the Office for National Statistics, but they show that the proportion of White British births in England and Wales, falling steadily year after year, had fallen to 58% in 2019.
I’ve not yet dared to look at the figures for 2020 and 2021 but we know that the number of births overall collapsed in 2020 particularly among British born women, so I do not expect good news.
So, the English are going to lose their homeland. But we will not be told until it has happened, and then it will be announced with a fanfare as something to be proud of.

D Glover
D Glover
2 years ago
Reply to  Frederick B

(she named, seeming to decry it, Le Grand Remplacement theory, a Zemmour staple alleging indigenous French populations are being replaced by immigrants)

It’s just a right-wing conspiracy theory.
Until it has happened, then it was historically inevitable.

Fredrick Urbanelli
Fredrick Urbanelli
2 years ago

This is a terrific article, not only for it’s insights into France’s complex and quirky political life, but for Mme. Moutet’s superb journalistic skills. Detailed yet concise, witty and perfectly crafted.
Bravo.

Peter Francis
Peter Francis
2 years ago

Many thanks to Anne-Elisabeth Moutet for a great article. More like this, please Unherd! The two-phase design of French presidential elections makes it so much more interesting, as far as I am concrened.
How fascinating, too, that French traditional political parties “are all a pit of voles”. It will be a fascinating election campagnol.

Patrick Fox
Patrick Fox
2 years ago

Anne-Elisabeth articles are a breath of fresh air and knowledgeable of french politics when compared to that of the ineffable pompous John Lichfield ( which I have made a point not to read or comment on anymore).

Richard Sainte-Marie
Richard Sainte-Marie
2 years ago

I had been losing track of the French political scene–pretty dynamic, as it turns out.
This article was most helpful in regaining my footing.
Thank you, Mme Moutet.

Laurie Wastell
Laurie Wastell
2 years ago

I’m confused. Weren’t we repeatedly assured by John Lichfield that Zemmour was doomed and Pecresse the only viable competitor to Macron?

Margaret Tudeau-Clayton
Margaret Tudeau-Clayton
2 years ago
Reply to  Laurie Wastell

Well, the situation is very volatile here so it’s not surprising you are confused. Plenty of French people are!

Patrick Fox
Patrick Fox
2 years ago
Reply to  Laurie Wastell

Dear Laurie it is not your fault. John Lichfield self proclaimed himself an authority on french politics but unfortunately he doesn’t understand french politics , french history or the French. So when you read anything he writes on France and the French ( or anything else as far as I am concerned) always remember this,he is like a lighthouse in the middle of a bog : illuminating but f… useless, this why The Independent hired him for so long.

David Simpson
David Simpson
2 years ago
Reply to  Laurie Wastell

I think the real problem / imponderable is how many FrenchPersons bother to vote. Lichfield’s argument is that les gilets jaunes et al have become totally pissed off with the whole thing and won’t bother. Zemmour may be a sufficient dose of Adrenalin to get them out, as Trump did in 2016 & 2020, to vote for or against. Failing that, Macron walks it (imho)

Sean Meister
Sean Meister
2 years ago

We all know Macron wins but my what a mighty shake of the tree Zemmour is doing. I think we can all support that. Le Pen’s betrayal of her core voters just as their gripes came into the mainstream is quite the political mistake.

David McDowell
David McDowell
2 years ago

I agree. A radical who isn’t tainted in the way the Le Pens are can tilt the balance. Even if France remains in the EU and the euro, it won’t be the France Macron wants to lead.