Marine Le Pen, leader of the French conservative opposition party Rassemblement National, has come out in support of the 20 French generals who signed an open letter warning of “civil war” in France. Le Pen is currently polling in first place in France for presidential elections to be held in 2022. This week, Le Pen was also acquitted of charges of “hate speech” for exposing radical Islamist propaganda on Twitter.
The French Army chief of staff has threatened the Army officers signing the open letter with court martial. Retired Foreign Legion general Christian Piquemal accused General François Lecointre of being a “bootlicker”.
Gateway Pundit documents all three letters in full:
On April 23, Marine Le Pen wrote to the dissenting officers:
Gentlemen, Generals, Officers, Representatives of all armies and all branches,
you have signed an open letter calling “for our leaders to return to honor.”
Your initiative, rare in the military, testifies to the level of concern you have in the face of the worrisome deterioration of the situation in our country. Your outspoken but fair observation, made in very strong terms, constitutes a public challenge that no one can ignore, given your reputation.
With the courage of those who have dedicated their lives to their country, you criticize our leaders very directly, questioning their responsibility quite legitimately, urging them to regain the ability to act and restore “our honor”.
As a citizen and as a politician, I agree with your analysis and share your concerns. Like you, I believe it is the duty of all French patriots, wherever they’re from, to stand up for the restoration and even the salvation of our country.
However, I believe that an open letter will not be enough to persuade our failing leadership to change its shameful ways.
The recent pronouncements by the President of France on his project to “deconstruct the history of France” indeed show us these harmful tendencies are not the result of a moment of confusion, but from a political agenda powered by fundamentally destructive ideology.
The concerns you so bravely express cannot remain a mere expression off outrage, however. In a democracy, we must look for a political solution which must materialize through a process of dialogue which must be validated by French voters.
This is the motivation for my political agenda, and of my candidacy for the French Presidency, with the objective of forming a government that will unify the nation.
Many senior officials and leading figures of society have rallied to our cause. I invite you to join us in the struggle which is beginning, a peaceful and political struggle, which is above all the struggle for France.
Marine Le Pen
After the French Army Chief of Staff Gen. François Lecointre threatened retribution against the active military officers who signed the letter, lead signatory and retired Foreign Legion Lt.-General Christian Piquemal penned the following response on April 30:
Dear General,
as Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, your first duty is to defend and support active and retired soldiers. Obviously, you prefer to conduct a witch hunt against them.
Thanks to your utterly slavish mindset, your appalling careerism, your lamentable submission to political power, you instead do the opposite and are prepared to sacrifice your peers and your betters, out of complacency and baseness. How terrible!
As you know, the duty of a leader worthy of the name is to protect his subordinates, his brothers in arms, and his elders, instead of sacrificing them as meat to the vengeance of the powers that be.
No doubt you are afraid of upsetting the Minister of Defense, whom you serve with obsequious zeal, acting like a bootli**er!
You, Sir, stand at the head of the French military. What are you waiting for? Another star, a promotion to Marshal?
It has been a long time since leaders like French Generals Alphonse Juin, Jean de Lattre, Philippe Leclerc, and Marcel Bigeard, beloved by their men, could speak truth to power at eye-level. Instead, your moral authority only serves to snap to and bend the knee. Do you have any pride left?
Like so many French people and soldiers, all I have for you is immense contempt.
It is true, I was discharged by the President of the Republic on August 23, 2016 pursuant to the disciplinarily decision of the Chiefs of Staff (6 active general officers having asked for my removal from active duty), but I regret nothing.
Faced with the complete breakdown in the rule of law at the “Jungle” migrant camp in Calais, I was a whistleblower, who forced the government to act.
In Le Figaro, you dared state about me: “I am going to write him to tell him that he is a disgrace, besmirches the army, and weakens it by turning it into an object of national controversy.”
Don’t bother writing me, General. I won’t even open your rag. The only one besmirching the army is you, make no mistake. The French patriots who know this have chosen sides. They are not mistaken.
I would indeed rather be in my shoes than in yours. Let me tell you, the opinion and judgment of your peers and subordinates is not kind, to put it mildly!
I can still get up in the morning and look in the mirror. I fear you cannot.
You prefer to fire patriots, sanction your fellow soldiers, bend the knee and serve the powers that be like a good servant. No one will mourn on the day you leave office.
Finally, two quotes that perfectly illustrate your behavior:
“When prudence is everywhere, courage is nowhere”. – Cardinal Mercier
“In France, we leave the arsonists alone and persecute those who raise the alarm.” Nicolas de Chamfort
With your submission and your subjugation to the powers that be, you act more like a bureaucrat than a soldier. The real dishonor as a general is yours.
With my utmost contempt,
Lieutenant General Christian Piquemal
The original open letter was published by Captain Jean-Pierre Fabre-Bernadac at the Place Armes website on April 22. Gateway Pundit documents the entire historic letter here:
Dear Mr. President,
Dear Members of Parliament and Government,The situation is serious. France is in danger. She faces many mortal perils.
We who, even in retirement, remain soldiers of France, cannot, in the current circumstances, remain indifferent to the fate of our beautiful country.
Our red, white and blue flag is not just a piece of cloth. It symbolizes the tradition, handed down through the ages, of those who, whatever their skin color or faith, have served France and given their lives for it.
On this flag we find in gold letters the words, “Honor and Country”. Today, our honor today lies in calling out the destruction of our country.
This destruction, under the guise of so-called anti-racism, follows a single aim: To foster unrest in our land, even hatred between communities.
There is much talk today of “racism”, “white supremacy” and “decolonization”. But what these hateful and fanatic activists actually want is race war.
They despise our country, its traditions and its culture. They want to see it destroyed by robbing it of its past and its history.
When they attack our statues, they are actually attacking our glorious military and civilian past, a heritage passed down in words that are centuries old.
This destructive attack, together with Islamism and the criminal hordes in the ghettos, is dividing our nation with dogmas that are contrary to our constitution.
Every Frenchman, whatever his faith or lack thereof, is at home everywhere in France. There cannot and must not exist any city or district where the laws of the Republic do not apply.
This destructive attack causes hatred to outweigh our bonds of brotherhood.
The government pits the police, as their proxies and scapegoats, against our citizens expressing their despair in Yellow Vests.
Meanwhile, masked and hooded radicals ransack businesses and threaten these same police officers, who are only trying to obey the sometimes contradictory orders given by you, the government.
The danger is mounting. The violence is increasing day by day. Who would have predicted ten years ago that a teacher would one day be beheaded on the street in broad daylight in France, on his way home from school?
We, as servants of our Nation, who have always been ready to stick our necks out for our country, as is a soldier’s duty, cannot remain passive in the face of such danger any longer.
It is imperative that those who run our country find the courage to eradicate these dangers.
To achieve this, it is often enough to merely start enforcing existing laws without weakness.
Remember that, like us, a large majority of our fellow citizens are baffled by your hand-wringing and shameful silence.
As Cardinal Mercier, Primate of Belgium, said: “When prudence is everywhere, courage is nowhere.”
So, ladies and gentlemen, you have dawdled enough. The hour is grave, the task is huge.
Do not waste any more time and know that we are ready to support those policies which will safeguard the nation.
If nothing is done, lawlessness will inexorably continue to spread in our society, ultimately leading to an explosion and the intervention of our active military in the dangerous task of protecting our civilizational values, and safeguarding our fellow citizens in our country.
There is no more time to waste. Otherwise, tomorrow civil war will put an end to this growing chaos.
The deaths, which will number in the thousands, will be on your hands.
Signed,
Lieutenant-general Christian PIQUEMAL (Foreign Legion), Major-General Gilles BARRIE (Infantry), Maj.-Gen. François GAUBERT (former Military Governor of Lille), Maj.-Gen. Emmanuel de RICHOUFFTZ (Infantry), Maj.-Gen. Michel JOSLIN DE NORAY (Marines), Brigadier General André COUSTOU (Infantry), Brigadier General Philippe DESROUSSEAUX de MEDRANO (Train), Brig.-Gen. Antoine MARTINEZ (Air Force), Brig.-Gen. Daniel GROSMAIRE (Air Force), Brig.-Gen. Robert JEANNEROD (Cavalry), Brig.-Gen. Pierre Dominique AIGUEPERSE (Infantry), Brig.-Gen. Roland DUBOIS (Transmissions), Brig.-Gen. Dominique DELAWARDE (Infantry), Brig.-Gen. Jean Claude GROLIER (Artillery), Brig.-Gen. Norbert de CACQUERAY (Armaments), Brig.-Gen. Roger PRIGEN T (ALAT), Brig.-Gen. Alfred LEBRETON (CAT), Surgeon General Guy DURAND (Health Service), Rear Admiral Gérard BALASTRE (Navy).
Richard Abelson is Gateway Pundit international correspondent. Follow him at Parler.
