First-person, Algerian-perspective monologue about the French National Front (FN). The speaker recounts feeling threatened while living in France in the 1990s, visiting a FN office and being received pleasantly, and contrasts European/French debates about the FN with stronger, everyday nationalism found in Maghreb political parties. The speaker also links increased French media openness to the FN with the growing transfer of decision-making powers to EU institutions, arguing that even an FN victory might not change much because many laws are now decided at the EU level.
Ah, I wanted to talk to you about the perception that an Algerian might have of the National Front. Well, I am Algerian. I don't live in France, so I don't have a political position to comment on. However, I can tell you a little bit about how I perceive and how many Algerians also perceive the national frame. So once I was there a long time ago, in the 90s, I didn't know France very well at that time. And then, uh, I had been to a friend's house. It was a left wing family, they were communists, they were going to go to the Facts of humanity and so on. So I was at their house in the evening. They lived on the route of the beeline. And then I went out, I went out for a walk. I wanted to discover France. France, or rather the region where they were in any case. And there, damn, there was the big fear. In fact, there were strange people everywhere. There were. I felt at one point like I was some kind of prey, with predators lurking everywhere waiting to pounce on me. And you see people who were really touched. So I didn't feel reassured. And so what I did was go home a little later. And then he told, listen, guys, we're going to have to put barbed wire on the front wall soon and put landmines in the garden. So I said that in the middle of a meal, it had the effect of a bomb, a silence, A silence. And then my mother said to me, you're talking about a national child. And I thought to myself, what sense does this nationalist have? And in fact, we also have to put things in context, which is that in the 90s in Algeria, there was practically a civil war. People were killed for. Yes, in no things like that. So it's true that coming from such a context, I generally tended to respond, let's say, to violence, with violence, while not at all, but while being defensive, never attacking anyone. But I had to give an answer to any potential violence in any case. And so a few days later, I was in Paris and I saw a National Front office. So I simply went in and said, hello, who are you? What? And then I explained that I was a foreigner, that I was from, that I was passing through, and that I had heard a certain number of curious things about the National Front and that I wanted to find out for sure. And there you have it. So I was received very nicely. There was a guy there, he invited me into his office and we talked for an hour. He was very nice. And then I understood a little bit what it was all about. Now I'M going to tell you something else. When you go to Algeria or Tunisia or Morocco or the Maghreb in general, or Arab countries in general, you'll find that the political landscape is made up of a certain number of parties, parties with various affiliations. You can call some left wing, others right wing. Artificial divisions, a bit of havoc. And then what happens is that if you look at their programs, they all have, whether they're left wing or right wing, extremely nationalist. I mean, much more nationalist than the National Front, the last of The Algerian parties, 100 times more nationalist than the National Front. So we can approve of these parties or we can disapprove of them, but the majority of people approve of them. So how can someone who is, for example, in the Maghreb, who, when he is in the Maghreb, approves of a party or another local one, that once he has flown two hours and landed in France, you ask him a question about the Fr. National, he will come out with a certain number of, let's say, things. I was going to say horrifying, but I prefer to remain neutral. He comes out with a certain number of things and, and, and. And words often heard that give you the impression that you are listening to France too. In fact, there are people, they repeat things in such a way, with such fidelity that when I hear them, I almost want to take out €5 and give them for the TV license. I really feel like I am listening to the television. So that's something I wanted to share with you. And in general, in Algeria, the debate when the French have about the National Front in general, it's a debate that is not very well understood. People don't see why you demonize the National Front, because for us, the principle of the National Front is. I was going to say, cat's pee. I mean, it's part of everyday life. That's respect for our country, our flag, our borders, preference for Algerians, the greatness of the country, its history, its revolution, all that. But I mean, these are things that we teach kids in schools. Not that unless France is not really a country, unless it's just a tennis club. And at that point, it's true that in a tennis club, being nationalistic is a little bit out of place. But until proven otherwise, for me, France is a country where a normal amount of nationalism seems perfectly appropriate. So on the other hand, I wanted to say something else. I would like to say something else. I see that lately the National Front has had good press, that it seems that the press has finally made peace with the National Front. And I noticed that this is contemporary with the increasingly rapid extension of the powers and prerogatives of the European Union. So let me tell you something. I'm going to paraphrase an American judge who, in a very famous case a number of years ago, was about. It was about pornography, in fact, in the. At the time, I think it was in the 60s or 70s, and in fact, it's a very famous case where the issue was to determine whether a publication, whether a piece of content was pornography, or whether it was art, or whether it was a form of expression prohibited by the American Constitution. And so the judge was clear that what he saw was pornography. But the lawyers kept playing with words and the definition. Then in the end, he told listen, I'm not going to try to define pornography with you, but it's something that when I see it, I recognize it. So I'm going to tell you something. In Africa, dictatorship or tyranny or whatever you want, I won't try to define it, because these are things that take on so many different aspects, but I can simply tell you that when I see them, I recognize them. In the early 90s in Algeria, when there were many elections, it was, I think, the first time in our history, maybe even the last time, that we had relatively free and relatively fair elections. Let's say the majority of people voted for the free Islamic Son of Salvation. So it's an Islamist party. And what happened is that this party had the management of the town halls and the communes, and at the time, the communes had extraordinary power. The communes really did a lot of things. And in fact, what happened is that the central government, what did it do? He began to remove prerogatives from the municipalities and transfer them to other levels of administration. So people who were elected had fewer and fewer prerogatives, and those who weren't had more and more power. And in fact, what happened is that power was simply transferred from elected people to people who weren't. In fact, I even met a mayor at the time, and he told me that the only thing we have left today is household waste pillar election. So, in fact, today I think the system accepts that you vote for the National Front and that you even have National Front leaders. But this may have come too late, because most of your laws are not decided at the local level. They are not decided in France. Even your constitution, like most countries in the world, is not the founding text, as its name suggests. It is not the supreme text of the nation, but in fact, it has, above and below it, European directives which are not at all debatable in France because they are not voted on and they are decided. These are directives, these are laws that are decided by people for whom you do not vote and you cannot vote. They are simply civil servants. So that's why today you are probably allowed to vote for the National Front, hence this. We see that the press today is very, very open to such an eventuality. But in fact, even if this eventuality were to materialize, I don't think it would change much for you. So that's it. I'm sorry for being pessimistic today, and I'll try to be a little more positive in a future video. Thank you very much and see you soon.
