An open letter from French military veterans to Macron

Mr. President,

Ladies and Gentlemen of Government,

Ladies and Gentlemen of Parliament,

The hour is grave; France is in peril; many mortal dangers menace her. We, who, even in retirement, remain the soldiers of France, cannot, under present circumstances, rest indifferent to the fate of our beautiful country.

Our tricolour flags are not just bits of cloth: they symbolize the tradition, across the ages, of those who, whatever their colour or creed, have served France and have given their lives for her. On these flags we find, in letters of gold, the words “Honneur et Patrie” [“Honour and Fatherland”]. Now, today our honour consists in the denunciation of the disintegration that has stricken our fatherland.

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Army Corps General Christian Piquemal, 80, was the lead signatory of the 20 retired generals who backed the letter. He is pictured at an anti-Islam rally in Calais in 2016.

Disintegration which, by means of a certain antiracism, has fixed upon a single goal: to create upon our soil an unease, even a hatred between communities. Today some speak of racialism, of indigenism and of decolonial theories; but behind these words it is racial war that these hateful and fanatical partisans desire. They despise our country, her traditions, her culture, and wish to see her dissolve by snatching her past and her history from her. And so, in the form of statues, they attack ancient military and civil glories, picking apart centuries-old words.

Disintegration which, with Islamism and the hordes of the banlieue, provokes the breaking away of many parts of the nation in order to transform them into territories under the sway of dogmas contrary to our Constitution. Now, every Frenchman, whatever his belief or unbelief, is at home everywhere in the Hexagon; there cannot and must not be any town, any quarter in which the Laws of the Republic do not apply.

Disintegration because hatred overtakes brotherhood during protests in which power uses the forces of law and order as a proxy and a scapegoat against Frenchmen in yellow vests expressing their desperation. All this while masked infiltrators ransack businesses and threaten the very same forces of law and order. But the latter were only following the orders, often contradictory, given to them by you, our leaders.

Dangers mount; violence increases day by day. Who would have predicted ten years ago that a teacher would be decapitated at the gates of his school? Now, we, servants of the Nation, who have always been ready to lay down our lives on the line—as our status as soldiers demands—cannot, in the face of such provocations, be but passive spectators.

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Division General Emmanuel De Richoufftz during his visit to the central Ivory Coast area of Sakassou August 29, 2003. Gen. De Richoufftz was also among the 20 generals to sign the letter.

Likewise, it is imperative that those who lead our country summon the courage necessary for the eradication of these dangers. For this it is often enough simply to enforce, without leniency, the laws that already exist. Do not forget that, like us, a great majority of our fellow-citizens is exasperated by your chopping and changing and your guilty silences.

As Cardinal Mercier, Primate of Belgium, said: “When prudence is everywhere, courage is nowhere.” So, Ladies and Gentlemen, enough prevarication: the hour is grave; our work is colossal; lose no time and understand that we are ready to support those politicians who will consider the security of the nation.

Otherwise, if nothing is done, lassitude will continue to spread inexorably through society, eventually provoking an explosion and the intervention of our active comrades in a perilous mission to protect our civilizational values and to secure our compatriots in the national territory.

As we see, it is no longer the time for circumlocution, lest, tomorrow, civil war should put an end to this mounting chaos, and the dead, for which you will bear the responsibility, should be counted in the thousands.