France: Generals warn of looming ‘civil war’
Did members of the French military implicitly threaten a coup? asked Maud Cazabet in L’Obs. That question is being asked after 20 retired generals, who still serve as reservists, published an open letter stating that they cannot be “passive spectators” to the “disintegration” of France. Published in the conservative magazine Valeurs Actuelles, the letter was co-signed by more than 8,000 former members of the military and at least 18 active soldiers. It declares that the country is being torn apart by Islamist terrorism, immigrant “hordes from the projects,” anti-racist “fanatics,” and antigovernment Yellow Vest protesters. Writing 60 years to the day after a failed coup against President Charles de Gaulle, the generals demand that President Emmanuel Macron take action immediately or else civil war will “put an end to this growing chaos.” Marine Le Pen, head of the far-right National Rally party, quickly endorsed the generals’ analysis. The head of the armed forces, Gen. François Lecointre, said the generals could be removed from the reserves for violating their vow of neutrality; the active service members who signed the letter could be kicked out of the military.
This is practically “a declaration of war” against the government, said Jean-Michel Servant in Midi Libre. “Even if it remains at the stage of simple threat,” the murmurs of a possible coup reveal the rage that has been bubbling in military circles since Macron’s 2017 election. Two months after taking office, the president announced plans to slash the defense budget. When then–military chief Gen. Pierre de Villiers openly protested,
Macron forced him to resign—an act unprecedented in modern French history. Since de Villiers’ departure, we’ve seen more and more French soldiers post selfies on social media in which they’re giving the Nazi salute. Already, polls show that about 4 in 10 soldiers vote for the far right, roughly double the national average. “If we are not careful, this fascist temptation could spread like wildfire.”
But the generals are right: France does have a terrorism problem, said Gavin Mortimer in The Spectator (U.K.). In 2015, Islamists slaughtered 130 people in a rampage through Paris. Over the past four years, at least 25 people have been killed in 14 jihadist attacks. The victims include a teacher who was beheaded outside his school last fall and a police worker stabbed to death last month. The perpetrators were not only disaffected French youths, but also Tunisians, Chechens, and Pakistanis. France is in danger of becoming “a battleground for Islamist fighters from around the world,” and the generals’ letter is simply a “cri de coeur that France is losing this guerrilla war.” Macron has done a great deal to battle Islamism, said Alexandre Lemarié in Le Monde. He has passed a law to ensure that French mosques and schools cannot be run by radicals and is now pushing a bill that will expand authorities’ surveillance powers. But Macron is running even with Le Pen in polls for next year’s presidential election, and 66 percent of French voters judge his security policies a failure. Unless he changes that perception, Macron could end up a one-term president.