Barnier veers to Right with attack on cancel culture

Ex-brexit negotiator lashes out at ‘woke ideology’ in hope of clinching French presidential nomination

MICHEL BARNIER, the former EU chief Brexit negotiator who hopes to lead the French Right in upcoming elections, has criticised wokeism and cancel culture as dangerous far-left threats that “we must absolutely fight”.

Known to British observers as a reserved Brussels technocrat keen to avoid flare-ups, Mr Barnier has enacted a handbrake turn to the Right in his attempt to clinch the presidential nomination for his Republicans Party, due to pick its candidate next month.

In a televised debate before the vote, Mr Barnier and his rivals were asked about remarks by Rama Yade, a former junior minister in the conservative administration of Nicolas Sarkozy, who described wokeism as “a noble fight for justice and a call for equality”. The term, she said, was “brandished in an abusive manner as a tool for censorship”.

In a two-minute diatribe, Mr Barnier lashed out at “those who wish to topple statues”, saying: “Wokeism and cancel culture are not micro-aggressions but dangerous, extreme-left ideologies we must absolutely fight. Woke ideology wants to destroy our national cohesion. One must pay attention to these people because what is coming over here from American universities – and is already present – is unacceptable.”

Mr Barnier, 70, said there was “a host of examples of this widespread sectarianism, of this aggressiveness, this power given to minorities to the detriment of the national interest and the national narrative”.

He went on to call for a ban on socalled gender-inclusive language from public documents. Among the words in the line of fire was “iel”, a non-binary pronoun that was recently added to the Petit Robert dictionary’s online edition.

Mr Barnier’s rivals, including Xavier Bertrand, regional president of Hautsde-france, and Valérie Pécresse, head of the Paris region, issued similar calls.

Ms Pécresse expressed outrage at some parents’ attempts to ban The Three Little Pigs in nursery schools, without providing details. Cancel culture was, she said, “a politically correct dictatorship that is re-writing French history”.

Commentators said the Republican runners were falling over themselves to prove that the independent hard-right polemicist Eric Zemmour held no monopoly over such issues.

Polls suggest Mr Zemmour is vying with his far-right rival Marine Le Pen for a place in the second-round presidential run-off next April against Emmanuel Macron.