French Generals Call for Military Rule if Macron Fails to Crack Down on Islamist Terrorism

Twenty mostly retired generals from the French Armed Forces have called for France to be put under the military’s rule if the government led by President Emmanual Macron cannot get control of the threat posed to the country by political Islamism.

The letter the group of generals signed, written by Captain Jean-Pierre Fabre-Bernadac, described the threat as France “disintegrating with the Islamists of the hordes of the banlieue [suburbs] who are detaching large parts of the nation and turning them into territory subject to dogmas contrary to our constitution.” The letter was published in the French right-wing magazine Valeurs Actuelles. 

Their stated motive was that “Even in retirement, we remain soldiers of France and cannot in the present circumstances remain indifferent to the fate of our beautiful country,” alongside a warning that the situation in France could spark a civil war if Macron’s government do not crack down hard on the spread of the radical Islamist and their anti-Western ideology.

A misconception about the letter is that the retired generals were wanting radical changes from President Macron when in reality the group was simply asking for the current laws on the books to be enforced against the growing number of dissidents living in lawless ghetto areas. The group also was not advocating for some form of a military coup and instead their call for military rule was more or less hyperbole to highlight how critical the situation is becoming.

It was just on April 24 that the last Islamist terrorist attack took place in Paris when a 49-year-old woman was stabbed to death. 

Between 2014-2019 there have been over 250 deaths in France due to ISIS-affiliated terrorists in comparison to less than 100 in the United States, and less than 50 in Belgium, the United Kingdom, and Germany. 

Florence Parly, France’s Armed Forces Minister, said in response to the open letter, “The irresponsible column published in Valeurs Actuelles is only signed by retired soldiers, who no longer have any function in our armies and only represent themselves.”

On the other side of the issue leader of the nationalistic political party National Rally, Marine Le Pen said addressing the letter the generals signed, “I invite you to join our action to take part in the battle which is opening, which is certainly a political and peaceful battle, but which is above all the battle of France.”

France has had a highly exasperated crime rate and rate of terrorism in the aftermath of the migrant crisis that saw millions of supposed “refugees” come from the Middle East and North Africa to European countries and more often than not settle into ghettos that have become “no go zones” for non-Muslims. 

It isn’t just that there is a large rabble of mostly young men being shipped directly into European cities that come from more lawless areas of the world, but that there is a strong political Islamist culture being pushed on the migrants from radicals already in Western countries or from among the surge of migrants.

This has led even those often criticized for inaction like President Macron in France to identify political Islam as a primary danger to France and other Northern European countries. 

Political Islam is not itself related to the majority of the Muslim community, it is an extreme and subversive form of Islam pushed by Islamists who advocate for such things as Sharia Law and violence against non-Muslims. 

It seems with tensions heightening in France that President Macron either has to push back hard on the extremists in their borders and the ideology of Islamism or be beaten by Ms. La Pen in the next presidential election, as polls see her surging due to her tough rhetoric on terrorism.