Monday, July 01, 2024

Petain wins, round one

 Among the orignal founders of the Front National, currently going around under a ridiculous moniker,  Rassemblement national, was Pierre Bousquet. In 1945, as a Rottenfuehrer for the French Waffen SS, he fought for the Nazis in Berlin. Victor Barthélémy, another founder, formed the LWF, a group of armed volunteers to help the Nazis on the Eastern Front. André Dufraisse, another founder, also fought with the Nazis.

Since those happy days when the Front National let its pro-Nazi flag fly proudly, the party has, as it were, Mussolini-ized. It has, under Maine Le Pen, pretended that all the nazi regalia in the party attic is actually very cute fascist regalia, a la Meloni.

This is the party that has spread its brown over the map of France. This is not just due to some sudden influx of racism. This is due to the absolute horror that we see, each day, ruling France under the technocrats, CEOs and think tankers which are the collective establishment in France. This is due to a Left that, under Hollande, and really, under Mitterand too, cut its ties with the working class, except when they were convenient. A left that is a bunch of warring fiefdoms. 

Here we are. Wait for it: the first street to be named after Bousquet will certainly entail the kind of ceremony that the President, wanting to be all centrist and unity oriented, will make a fine speech at.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, thanks for at least mentioning that among the patriotic founders of the FN were fucking members of the Waffen SS. Their current patriotic slogan France revient = Vichy. No thanks. They might well name a street after Pierre Bousquet, after all we have a street in Paris named after a patriotic French general who killed thousands of people of the Paris Commune. I'd rather we had a street named Joe Bousquet. Mime de rien, Amie used to play a game with us as kids where we'd rename Paris streets, she chose Anna Karina for the street named after the murderous general.
I think I agree that this vote is not just about racism, thought I wouldn't say that we do we have a handle on what racism means and does? As for the Left betraying people already in the 80s, there's a Jospin quote that I found in my aunt's notebooks: "we're going to open a liberal parenthesis".

-Sophie

Anonymous said...

o my beating heart...

- Sophie

contempt

  Mépris is French for contempt. Among aging American cinephiles, Godard’s film Le Mépris is enjoyed best if one retains the title without t...