On Tuesday, the cream of European conservatism was gathered at the Grand Hotel Plaza in Rome, invited by an Israeli host, Yoram Hazony.
On the theme of “national conservatism”, eminent figures on the right such as the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the former American presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and the president of Fratelli d’Italia Giorgia Meloni were notably invited.
At the opening of her speech, the former member for Vaucluse gave her definition of conservatism and cited examples such as “the national conservatism of Donald Trump”, “the illiberalism of Victor Orban”, “the sovereignty of Boris Johnson”, “Polish national Catholicism” and “Austrian and Czech liberal-conservatism”.
Maréchal also pondered “the face of French conservatism”. For her, “there have been conservative moments since the Revolution” but not a decisive movement, despite “social Catholicism or Gaullism”. But France is not doomed “to be a progressive nation”.
Marine Le Pen’s niece said the example of the Yellow Vests was “a spectacular version of a contained electoral revolt” which was “physically repressed” likening them to the “Brexiters” although they were “not listened to”.
For her, “The French feel that a conservative approach has become a vital necessity to protect their material and cultural heritage”. Marion Maréchal also expressed her main concern: “What is left when my country turns into the back room of Salafism? At a time when 150 French districts are in the hands of the Islamists?”
According to the former MP, “the Conservatives are best equipped to meet the main challenges of the 21st century: demographic explosion, social divide, ecological exhaustion, anthropological revolution and the future of our European continent”.
On this last point, and to remedy the flaws of the European Union, Marion Maréchal proposed “a Latin alliance between France, Spain, Italy and Portugal” which should keep “the link with Great Britain and Russia”.
To cope with the population explosion and the fact that Europeans “can quickly become a minority on their soil”, the director of ISSEP called for “drastic measures”.
“We have no choice but to rebuild our borders. There is no choice but to protect our agriculture as a strategic sector, no other choice than to try to produce as much as possible locally. There is no choice but to base our power not on numbers but on ingenuity,” she argued.
To put an end to the social divide that divides France into large cities against peripheral France, Marion Maréchal urged the French “to count on our rural and medium-sized cities, to have a varied economy, to have a strong social structure, to offer a future to all our inhabitants”.
Regarding ecology, she is convinced that it is a “conservatism” and said: “Sorry Greta.”
“Preserving our territories, our biodiversity, our landscapes, should be the natural fight of the conservatives,” she believes. And this subject goes hand in hand with the anthropological revolution.
“It is surprising that progressives defend ecology for nature but not for humanity,” she deplored. Today, for the former MP there are two choices: give in to eugenics where “man and the human body become objects of consumption”, or “carry the new humanism of the 21st century”.
In conclusion, Marion Maréchal evoked the “terrible images” of the fire of Notre-Dame de Paris. “Faced with these flames, the French felt this intense need to preserve,” she explained, before continuing: “Some saw this event as a symbol: that of our dying society. Others an alarm signal for the vulnerability of heritage. I prefer to see in it a promise of hope: that of the still standing foundations of our civilization despite the perils of the time.”
