Marine Le Pen declares Islamism an ‘enemy of France’

“A war is being waged against us and we must fight this war”. Ten days after the terrorist assassination of Samuel Paty, Marine Le Pen felt that “Islamist ideology” should be considered “an enemy of France”.

“We are not waging this war against a State, but against an ideology: Islamism”, pleaded the president of the National Rally during the broadcast of the Grand Jury RTL-Le Figaro-LCI.

“If we are at war, we must declare this ideology the enemy of France”, she continued, and “decisions must flow from this declaration”. The 2022 presidential candidate cited in particular the ban on “organizations that promote this ideology”, the closure of Islamist mosques, the removal of “all funding that comes to support” Islamism or the expulsion of foreigners defending Islamism.

Marine Le Pen also defended life imprisonment for the perpetrators of terrorist acts, the deprivation of nationality for radicalized bi-nationals and, for citizens with French nationality alone, a penalty of “national degradation” equivalent to “civic death”.

Faced with the Islamist danger, she did not say no to a return of the death penalty either: “What shocks the French is to see people who have committed appalling acts come out after 10, 20 years. Those who commit terrorist acts must be imprisoned for life, ” insisted the president of the RN.

She added that France should denounce several articles of the European Convention on Human Rights which “in many cases prevents us from protecting ourselves from terrorists”. According to her, “when a terrorist who has killed on our soil leaves prison and we are forbidden to send him back to his country of origin […], it is an endangering of the French people”.

Le Pen insisted on the fact that “Muslims must participate in the fight against Islamism, an ideology”. According to her, a “ministry of Immigration” must be set up since this subject “is a major problem in our country”. Le Pen reaffirmed her opposition to “wearing the veil in public space”, asking for its “ban”.

Marine Le Pen has also declared herself in favor of the re-election of Donald Trump, which would be “more positive” than that of Joe Biden.

Returning to the danger of “Islamo-leftism” used in recent days, in particular by Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer, she said that there was also an “Islamo-rightism”.

Bruno Pomart, a former police officer of the RAID, recently told CNews: “The National Rally is currently much less dangerous than [the Islamo-leftist party] France Insoumise.” The RAID is an elite tactical unit of the French National Police.

French footballer Paul Pogba has reportedly quit international football after comments from French president Emmanuel Macron stating that Islam was the source of international terrorism. The Manchester United player will no longer play for France.

France has had to face rising anger in the Arab world, with a call to boycott French products, calls for demonstrations in Libya, Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s attacks on the “mental health” Emmanuel Macron and also denunciations by Moroccan and Pakistani leaders.