For El Hamzaoui, “eternal France is a fable, not a past. It is the narrative of an imaginary community defined by blood, one that has never existed”. There is a fundamental contradiction in this line of argument. If “eternal France” – an expression dear to General de Gaulle – does not exist and is nothing more than a “fable”, why should it disappear? In her words, this is therefore above all a declaration of hatred toward a culture that very much does exist and that she wants to see disappear, proving herself a worthy heir to certain revolutionaries who sought to make a clean sweep of the past.

The same rhetoric appears in the words of Yazid Arifi, co-founder and director of the École Démocratique de Paris, who is also an activist for La France Insoumise. A graduate of the prestigious HEC Paris business school, he recently declared: “Contributing to the fall of the Western citadel is our task; it is the task of a future insubordinate government. To de-Westernize France, then – that is our political priority.”

Reason to Fear

This perspective can legitimately inspire fear among native French people. The defenders of the old France “are right to be afraid, and we acknowledge their clarity of thought and foresight”, El Hamzaoui explains to her audience. Her words sound like a barely veiled threat, but it is a safe bet that she will not face any repercussions for having spoken them.

You might be interested The Dead Boy Failed by the French State

Within the French right, El Hamzaoui’s statement did not fail to provoke a reaction. Embracing confrontation just as she does – “it will all come down to them versus us”, she reportedly said – Éric Zemmour, president of the Reconquête party, was quick to respond. He did so with the finely crafted prose that is the former editorialist’s trademark: “If eternal France were a fable, you would not appear before us dressed and made up in the Western style, but covered from head to toe in a shapeless sack, concealing your eyes and your hair. If eternal France were a fable, you would not say it in this French language, which is the most accomplished expression of its people’s genius.”

For the polemicist Jean Messiha, we are witnessing a kind of “coming out” by those who openly admit their hatred of France.

This episode reveals a dangerous mix: a party like La France Insoumise is championing the great replacement for ideological reasons, but also out of sinister electoral opportunism. The immigrant population now constitutes the party’s largest bloc of voters.