Don’t be fooled,” François Mitterrand liked to say, “the French far right is also on the right. Never has this cruel analysis, of which the history of France is full of examples, been better verified than in the last few days, with the outbidding of politicians of the official right, panicked at the idea of being overtaken by the two candidates of the open far right.
Their latest declarations, on the “great replacement” and the “paper French”, recall old fantasies that occupied all the debates a century ago, when France was said to be threatened with “losing its soul under the blows of the Italian invaders”, then the Polish ones; and always, the “Jewish invaders”, seen not as a numerical threat but as parasites taking the place of the French in all the functions of influence.
So what should we think today about this “great replacement”, whether quantitative or qualitative: is it a fantasy or a reality?
First, it corresponds to an undeniable biological reality: each generation is replaced by the next. And, in a way, the fear of the great replacement simply refers to the fear of death.
Secondly, it coincides with a proven historical reality: peoples have constantly been replaced by others; each European country bears the name of an invader; Germany is even referred to by the name of three of them (Alamans, Deutch and Germans); and today’s France bears the name of an occupier, who took the place of other inhabitants (the Gauls, who themselves, etc.), going back as far as the French. Finally, the great replacement also corresponds to the fact that there is no doubt a conflict between the Homo sapiens and the Neanderthals.
Finally, the great replacement also corresponds to a proven fact in the history of religions: in many regions of the world, polytheistic religions have been eliminated and replaced by one of the two proselytising monotheisms: by Christianity in Europe and America; by Islam in Africa and Asia.
These movements continue; and we can also see their translation in the evolution of languages, which are constantly being fed with words from elsewhere. Thus, many French words come from more than a hundred other languages, or return to them after having made a diversion through other languages (such as “email”, whose original origin is French, “la malle poste”).
The new threat today does not therefore come from the continued arrival of people from elsewhere: whatever we want, they will come in increasing numbers from Africa and Asia, attracted to Europe by the security they so badly need. And they will bring, as other foreigners have done for centuries, their work, their skills, their will, their energy, their creativity, their cuisine, their music, their vocabulary, their culture.
The threat comes from the fact that, after eight centuries of battles in Europe to obtain the independence of thought from religion (a battle that has not yet been won in many countries), religious obscurantism is once again trying to defeat the Enlightenment. And no one will be able to rejoice at the overthrow of the dictatorship of a Christian obscurantism, if it is to be imposed by a new obscurantism, Muslim or other.
This is not a threat from Muslim countries: the great countries of Islam, from Morocco to Saudi Arabia, are advancing by force towards a modernity that is in no way contrary to their faith. Nor of a threat from recent migrants: if they come to Europe, it is precisely, for the most part, because they are fleeing obscurantism and dictatorship at home.
The threat comes mainly from some of the descendants of these migrants who are looking for answers that Western modernity no longer provides, and who want to recreate in Europe, sometimes by terror, certain elements of a way of life that their parents fled and that are contrary to our values, particularly with regard to women and democracy.
The defence of the Enlightenment and secularism (and of our way of life, which derives from it) is vital. And it is on this basis that we must open up to people from elsewhere; paying close attention to the sustainable integration of their children and grandchildren. Fighting darkness with light.
j@attali.com