Marine Le Pen

If you haven't come across Sean Foo before, you are in for a treat. His economic, politically focused analyses, are usually brilliant. He approaches the world with an open mind and seems able to grasp a big picture. His take on Marine Le Pen's National Rally, and the clips he illustrates her policies with, are extremely well-chosen. It is also worth reading the comments under his video.

Alexander Mercouris of the Duran makes a good summary of what is happening in French politics at the moment in this short embedded video. Inside I make some comments. 

In an on ne peut plus Orwellian development, a French court has ordered the leader of the Rassemblement National Party (name change from Le Front National), Mme Marine Le Pen, to undergo a psychiatric examination. Le Pen was taunted as having terrorist policies by radio-jock, Jean-Jacques Bourdin in 2015 and she responded by posting a photo of some Daesh terrorism, as an example of real terrorism, to show that the Front was not terrorist. Amazingly, the state ignored the rationale of the response and, despite the political nature of such a move, managed to have her European parliamentary immunity removed and has persevered in having her tried. Although the psychiatric evaluation is actually routine in such cases, the case itself is not routine.

Details of the case

As president of the French National Front, on 16 December 2015, M. Le Pen posted photos of bloody hostage executions by jihadists from ISIS, on her twitter account. She had found these published unrestrained on internet media. Via these twitter messages she was addressing Radio Monte Carlo (RMC) and announcer Jean-Jacques Bourdin. She accused Bourdin of having drawn a ridiculous parallel between her political party and ISIS, which had recently carried out attacks on France. Her point was to show how different the Daesh photos were from her own party's material. In what seems like a shockingly corrupt and cynical political tactic, The French Government got the European Parliament to remove Le Pen's parliamentary immunity, so that they could prosecute her for this relatively trivial reaction. Now, as reported in late September 2018, Le Pen is being required to submit to a psychiatric examination. Whilst such an examination might seem like the ultimate attack on a rival politician by the French Government, these examinations are actually mandatory and routine in all French prosecutions for terrorism. What is not routine is to remove parliamentary privilege from a politician in order to prosecute him or her for an action designed to respond to a hyperbolic media taunt. Even Le Pen's rival and critic, Jean-Luc Melanchon, has criticised this requirement in the circumstances.

Ms Le Pen is actually a qualified criminal lawyer herself.

In the context of anti-globalist parties winning elections in Austria, Italy, Hungary, Slovenia and Poland, French President Macron is losing approval daily and Le Pen's approval is growing again. Potentially Le Pen could go to prison for up to five years. Macron has committed France to illegal US-NATO wars and is intent on destroying aspects of France's Civil Code provisions for labor [1]; presumably throwing a rival into prison would not be beyond him, any more than it was for Tony Abbott [2] in Australia.

Soviet tactic condemned by other politicians

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, previously of French Communist and Socialist parties, currently leader of La France insoumise, tweeted that he was "in total disagreement with the psychiatrisation of political decisions." He said that "Madame Le Pen is politically responsible for her political acts." These statements were followed up by David Rachline, Rassemblement National Mayor of Frejus, who said, "Psychiatrisation of adversaries was a soviet specialty of totalitarian regimes. Now we have the right to it in France under Macron..." (French Source: https://www.valeursactuelles.com/politique/melenchon-en-desaccord-avec-lexamen-psychiatrique-de-le-pen-99135.

Order to commission an expert for expert psychiatric purposes

[Translation of the french document, by Sheila Newman]
Le Pen, Marion born 5 August 1968 [...]
Placed in examination
- for diffusion of messages violent, pornographic, or contrary to the accessible dignity of a minor, committed between 16 December 2015 at St Cloud on the Internet - twitter
... involving art.227-24 Penal Code
and Article 227-24, Article 227-29, Article 227-31 Penal Code
Taking into account articles B1, 156 and those following from the Code for penal procedure:
Taking into account the supplementary requirement of the Procurer of the Republic, on the date of 4 September 2018, towards medical expertise:
Taking into account Articles 227-24 of the Penal Code and 786-47 11* and 706-47-1 ..? 3 of the Code for penal procedure:
WE COMMISSION
Madame GArdel Berenice-Francoise-Marie, of Foch Hospital, 40 Rue Worth 92151, Suresnes, Cedex France, an expert who will adhere to article 160 fo the Code of penal procedure, who has been chosen for her competence, in her quality of expert inscribed on the list of Versailles Court of Appeal experts until 2016, and for her experience as a hospital practitioner, taking into consideration the necessity to proceed as quickly as possible to psychiatric expertise in order to satisfy a part of Article 6-1 of the CESDH and the right to be judged within a reasonable period of time (article 157 ?2 of Penal procedure code) so that the actions below can begin:
MISSION
Please proceed to the following actions after having familiarised yourself with the procedure:
1. Carry out the psychiatric examination of Marine Le Pen [...] and say whether she has the capacity to understand the situation and to respond to questions
2. Say whether the examination of [this person] reveals any mental or psychiatric abnormalities, and if so, describe and precise their effect
3. Say whether the infraction of which the subject is accused has a relationship with factual or biographical elements

and 5 other points of similar implication.

NOTES

[1] http://www.filoche.net/2014/11/30/peut-on-le-croire-lordonnance-macron-supprime-le-droit-specifique-du-travail/. Looks like the same workplace bargaining that Australia was bullied into, which then meant that employers could profit from mass worker immigration with impunity.
[2] /node/4919

Video & translation: "Today your announcements show that your project is not humanitarian, but strictly political, since you no longer even hide the fact that your more or less single intention is to overturn the Syrian government. You are taking us back to dark days, where one of your predecssors, arguing humanitarian reasons, announced that he wanted to overturn Gaddaffi's government. We know where that took us. The nations of the world did not give us a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council in order for us to follow servilely the way and the law of the strongest."

Translation (by Sheila Newman)

Marie Le Pen addresses Emmanuel Macron:

Mr President of the Republic,

If I have decided to address you directly here, this is because, on the pretext of chemical weapons use, (denied by the Syrian Government), the American president, Donald Trump, decided to attack Syria immediately.

This situation is all the more distressing because you yourself seem to want to associate our country with this new warlike adventure, before any independent investigation, without any consideration of international law, of our national interests, of our soldiers' lives, and of France's historic mission.

Yet, as France's attack on Iraq under President Chirac was vigorously condemned in the United Nations by his minister for foreign affairs, our country itself is called upon to make the voice of justice heard for world peace.

Already at that time, in 2003, do you remember, Mr President, some had already tried to get us to believe that there were weapons of mass destruction.

Today we know that unjustifyable gunboat policy of former times was based on a State's lie. A lie promoted in the theatre of mass media and all the way to the security council seats. That intervention, which France was unable to prevent, threw the whole Middle East into chaos and encouraged and armed Islamism.

The attacks we have experienced on our soil are almost the direct consequence, with the development of Daech, [...unintelligible] . The same scenario was repeated with the calamitous destabilisation of Syria and Libya, to which we owe today the immigration submerging Europe and the extension of jihadism in the Sahel and West Africa.

You are not ignorant of the fact that such political errors are never without consequence for us. Today your announcements show that your project is not humanitarian, but strictly political, since you no longer even hide the fact that your more or less single intention is to overturn the Syrian government.

You are taking us back to dark days, where one of your predecssors, arguing humanitarian reasons, announced that he wanted to overturn Gaddaffi's government. We know where that took us. The nations of the world did not give us a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council in order for us to follow servilely the way and the law of the strongest.

Who could believe that in these circumstances of exceptional gravity, France, which is an old country, a country that knows better than most the cost of war, should let itself be dragged into such war madness and lightly accept the roles of political pig [unknown metaphore] and military support.

Over and above this business in Syrian, we can only worry about the temptation of the western leaders to rebuild a new Berlin Wall, as if they were unable to see the world as it is today. Since 1989 the world has changed. The threats don't come from a secular state in the Middle East [Le Pen is referring to Syria, which is secular, as was Libya], nor from European powers which are potential allies in the battle against terrorism, but from groups or states that aspire to impose on the world, in the middle east, in Africa, or even in Europe, the theocratic dictatorship of a political Islam.

Our battle does not oppose western nations against Muslims, but Islamic totalitarianism against free countries, whether they are Muslim or not. The free world will come to the end of this criminal ideology and its hegemonic projects. All our efforts must be directed to eradicate Daech and jihadist groups, even when they call themselves 'freedom fighters' in order to spread Islamist ideology.

We are the inheritors of a nation which can only be herself in a state of dignity, to quote De Gaulle. The situation demands that France be herself worthy of her history, her rank, worthy of the role that free nations have conferred on her through her glorious history.

Mr President, if you

Rumours are flying round that the mainstream press and polls underestimated Marine Le Pen's popularity in the French election the way they did Trump's popularity. That Le Pen would have won were it not for the tearing of 15 million voting ballots in advance so that French law would declare them invalid and fail to count them. The National Front has complained that in several places voters received voting ballots for both candidates sent to their homes, but all the forms for Le Pen were torn. This happened in Ardèche, Allier, Savoie, Loire, Yvelines, Eure-et-Loir, and Hérault. The National Front addressed its complaints to the National Commission on Election Supervision (la Commission nationale de contrôle des élections), which replied that it would ask the Minister for the Interior to take every step to see that these facts, if they were proven, would not alter the validity of the vote count. In particular by asking voters to use the voting papers provided in the voting booths [rather than those sent to their homes]. Source: Reuters "Le FN se plaint de bulletins de Marine Le Pen déchirés," 6 May 2015.

One anonymous source estimates the number of damaged voting ballot forms therefore invalid votes submitted to be 15 million. But this source seems to assume that all torn voting forms delivered to homes were then used in the voting booths. How many were used? This 2017 Presidential election had the highest ever number - 12 per cent - of blank and void votes, i.e. votes that were handed in blank and votes that were disregarded as illegal for one reason or another. With or without formal election fraud, it is obvious that, if the mainstream press and the European Union and the government and all the major political parties had not tried to influence the French not to vote for Le Pen, she would probably have won outright and Macron would never have built up much steam. As it was, ALL the major French political parties disappeared overnight because they received so few votes. It seemed, indeed, as if many of their leaders had crossed over to Macron's party, which is more of a phenomenon than a real political party.

Here's what some people are saying in France about the election:

The numbers:

33 million votes cast (and counted). 16 million votes cast (and nullified due to damaged ballots, and claimed "forfeited protest votes".)
Votes cast to Macron: 22 million. Votes invalidated by damaged ballots (100 percent of these were LePen:) 15 million. Votes for LePen that were not invalidated by damaged ballots: 11 million. Probable actual protest votes, no more than 1 million LePen: 11 million plus 15 million is 26 million.

Possible final vote tally:

LePen: 26 million.
Macron: 22 million.
Protest: 1 million.

Unexpectedly Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, the president of the Stand up France (Debout la France) has backed Marine Le Pen for President of France. He feels that France must be saved from Macron's savage globalism and believes that many Republicans will join him in this. One can see that on the face of it, Le Pen has slightly fewer prospective votes than Macron, if you go by the form on the nine candidates who didn't make it to the second round and how their voters might now vote. But Le Pen is running a superb campaign and elite favorite, Emmanuel Macron has already tripped over his highly publicised very expensive shoes. As Le Pen has implied, now that the field has narrowed, people will be able to see both candidates more clearly. [The original title of this article was "Le Pen's chances as President improve as Stand Up France's leader backs her & Macron looms."]

Stand up France leader, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, signs agreement to govern with National Front

Nicolas Dupont-Aignan of Stand up France (Debout la France ) won 4.70% of votes in the first part of the French presidential election (which contains 2 parts). On the 28th of April 2017 as a guest of the 8pm news on France 2, he said that, like so many other political personalities, he might have washed his hands on the subject of who people should vote for in the second election round. He thought that might be more in his personal interest and that of his party but he is convinced that Emmanuel Macron is "Hollande force 10", meaning 10 times worse than François Hollande.

After a lot of thought, he says, the president of the Stand up France party met with Marine Le Pen on Friday 29 April 2017. "We signed a governing agreement evolving her platform, with some changes and even some additions from my presidential policies." He feels that France must be saved. "This evening I officially announce that I will be supporting Marine Le Pen, that I will even campaign with her, on a broader governing project." Nicolas Dupont-Aignan believes that many Republicans will join him in this.

The plausibles and the implausibles: Eleven First Round 2017 Presidential candidates

In the first round of the French Presidentials there were 11 candidates, who could be organised according to their positions across immigration, Islam or racism, border control, industrial and pension laws, the EU and Syria. The field was filled with right and left look-alikes and truly implausibles.

The implausibles attempted to confuse the public by straddling the main points of tension irreconcilably: For instance, although workers in France fear oursourcing, privatisation and immigrant competition for employment and housing, those posing as the 'left' (Nicolas Poutou and Natalie Artaud) now promised to defend workers rights, pensions and public ownership, whilst insisting on variations of open borders, racism conspiracy theories, immigrant over citizens' rights and vague anti-war ideals, without detail on Syria. Slightly more three dimensional Benoît Hamon, who split up the left some years ago with Mélenchon, however, also wanted 'firmness towards Russia and more arms',

Among the plausibly implausible were Mélenchon and François Fillon. Mélenchon, a long-time soldier for the Chardonnay left, with a long-term following drew nearly 20% of votes, comparable to Fillon's score. Fillon's policies located him on the 'right' and they ressembled Le Pen's on foreign and EU policy. (Le Pen wants to create a referendum about leaving the EU and she wants good relations with Russia, wants to respect Syria's sovereignty instead of invading it and trying to depose its legally elected president.) Fillon was highly critical of the EU, but drew the line on exiting it. He wanted to cooperate with Russia against ISIS and was against regime-change in Syria. He drew slightly over 20% of votes.

Those on the implausible 'right' had to compete with the National Front, so they also talked about boosting citizens' rights, preventing outsourcing, increasing protection of local product, getting out of the EU or modifying it, border protection and getting out of Syria or even working with Russia and Syria to get rid of ISIS. Possibly the most implausible of the implausibles was Jean Lassalle, from the Pyrenees on the border of France and Spain, who had been mayor of his town for forty years. He spoke very slowly in a thick folksy accent and his thought flow was so circumstantial that he simply could not get to the point. Despite this or because of it he obtained a higher vote than the two lesser socialist workers type candidates, Natalie Artaud and Phillipe Poitou.)

With the exception of Macron, who is shockingly approving of the United States's illegal acts against Syria, most of the 'right' candidates, following Le Pen, desired to end war in the middle east. This is understandable in France, which is located within refugee distance and nuclear fallout from that region. By ignoring this reasonable desire not to interfere in the region, 'centrist' Macron, the EU itself and Britain, seemed more in line with a United States centered outlook than the French perspective. Macron's ridiculous statement that 'France has no culture' seems overtly anti-France and smacks of economic rationalist slogans we have heard in Australia.

By the results from the first round, it looks like most French who voted could tell the difference between the completely implausible candidates, with the exception of Macron. What is left is the question of how their votes will be distributed in the second round, when Macron and Le Pen duke it out.

Macron is overtly backed now by the current government, the EU, and the mainstream press - i.e. all the usual suspects among the power-elite and the forces the world and France have been dealing with for years. After the first round, Benoit Hamon, who ran on a kind of socialist-ecologist-Europhile-anti-racist-porous borders-anti-Syria-pro-USA-NATO line denounced the National Front as racist and inimical and urged everyone to vote against them. Mélenchon could not resist coming out yesterday and said, although he would not tell people who to vote for, everyone should be able to work out that he would vote for Macron. But voting for Macron shows how insincere he is about workers' rights, other socialist principles and anti-economic globalism. For the left these days, open borders trump all their founding principles.

This left Nicolas Dupont-Aignan whose policies were very close to those of the National Front, but described by him as more 'Gaullist'. He was outspoken during the second debate about how Macron had come out of nowhere, powered by the corporate globalist elite and their mainstream media. He held up a sheet of paper featuring all the front pages that had featured Macron and he read out phone texts between him and a mainstream media editor who said they would not give him coverage until he was kinder about François Fillon (former Sarkozy government minister mired in corruption scandal of jobs for relatives). After the first round he said that he would meet with his party members and discuss where they all stood vis a vis Macron and Le Pen. The outcome of this was a strategy, deftly delivered on France 2 on 28 April http://www.francetvinfo.fr/politique/nicolas-dupont-aignan/nicolas-dupont-aignan-je-soutiendrai-marine-le-pen_2166736.html. He said that he had had discussions with Le Pen and some of her staff and that they had reached an agreement for her to take on board some of his policies in a future government. Macron, he said, is far too dangerous an option to vote for because he represents more of the same to which France has been subjected by Sarkozi and then Hollande, in terms of savage capitalism. That leaves Marine Le Pen. When the newsreader exclaimed something to the effect of Dupon-Aignant now advising his members to vote for the extreme right, Dupont-Aignon said, clearly and calmly, that Le Pen was not the extreme right.

Trends illustrated in Fig 2

Looking at Figure 2, which is a light-hearted attempt to show how the first-round candidates and their voters appeared to be aligned vis à vis left or right and the main positions, one can see that on the face of it, Le Pen has slightly fewer prospective votes than Macron. But Le Pen is running a superb campaign and Macron has tripped over his highly publicised very expensive shoes with a pretentious and premature Parisien victory celebration vs Le Pen's regional loyalty meeting location; by his behind-closed-doors fraternisation with Whirlpool management when Le Pen was out there with the Whirlpool workers, who are threatened by Whirlpool's taking French subsidies and relocating its factories to Poland; followed by Le Pen's huge rally at Nice, where 86 people had been run down by a truck driven by an Islamic extremist on Bastille Day 2016. Le Pen's post election comments as the guest on France 2 the evening of her coming second, behind Macron, in the first round showed once again her criminal-law barrister skills of defence. Among other brilliantly aimed arrows, she said that it was easy to campaign when the mainstream media and the establishment throw roses in your path, and, that having eleven candidates in the field had created a kind of smokescreen for Macron, but now the mist will clear and the public will be able to see him more clearly for what he really is.

Video of conference inside: Speeches verbally translated in English, live. Leaders of several European nationalist parties gathered for the ‘Freedom for Europe’ congress, in Koblenz, on Saturday, January 21. The meeting was the first official appearance of Frauke Petry, chair of the AfD (Alternative for Germany), alongside Front National leader Marine Le Pen. Both were joined by Geert Wilders, founder and leader of the Dutch PVV (Party for Freedom), and Liga Nord leader Matteo Salvini. Dubbed a “European counter-summit”, this first-of-its-kind gathering was organised by the Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF) group from the European Parliament.

This video is of an interview by RT with Marine Le Pen, leader of the French Front National, on the problems of the European Union for itself and for Europe. As usual she goes directly to the point, displaying her characteristic piercing wit. We have included much of RT's article below the video, in the absence of a transcript. The original article and video were published here: https://www.rt.com/news/343715-eu-collapsing-france-lepen/

RT ARTICLE: The EU is on the brink of collapse, as two of its main “pillars” are “crumbling” despite the billions of euros spent on keeping the structure from falling, far-right French leader Marine Le Pen told RT, adding that the union would fail if France left it.

“I believe that the European Union is in the process of collapsing on itself for one simple reason. The two pillars on which it’s founded – Schengen and the euro – are in the process of crumbling,” Le Pen told Marie De Douhet of RT France in an exclusive interview. “So they’re in a sort of mad downward spiral in which they’re capable of anything today to try and keep this building standing.”

The leader of France’s hard-right Front National party believes the collapse is not a matter of “if” but “when,” saying the EU “shines from the light of a dead star” while its leaders are struggling to play for time “at the cost of billions trying to hold this structure up.”

As a “revealing” piece of evidence supporting her opinion, Le Pen cited one of Brussels’ recent punitive measures.

“The threat of condemnation of countries which do not accept migrants – a €250,000 fine for each migrant not taken in – is in itself revealing,” Le Pen said.

The European Commission unveiled plans earlier in May to impose a penalty of around €250,000 per rejected refugee on countries that refuse to share the burden of Europe’s migrant crisis.

For countries such as Poland, which is adamantly opposed to taking in refugees, the new compulsory measure would result in a fine of over €1 billion ($1.1 billion), given its existing quota of 6,500 people.

“The threats, the blackmail, now used systematically by the European Union is, above all, a gigantic problem of weakness,” Le Pen said.

Commenting on the migrant crisis, Le Pen said the EU is using immigrants as a tool to drive down labor costs across the 28-country bloc.

READ MORE: Human traffickers exploit EU migrant crisis to increase child smuggling – EU report

“That’s why the European Union supports tens of millions of immigrants in the coming years which will come onto the European Union labor market to push down wages,” she said. “So, in fact they have betrayed, if you like, the working class.”

Marine Le Pen has been a vocal supporter of the UK leaving the European Union, a move that the National Front hopes would inspire a similar “Frexit” campaign.

According to a March poll, 53 percent of French citizens surveyed would like to hold a Brexit-like referendum on France’s membership in the EU. 

When asked if she feared any consequences for a “Frexit,” or Brussels’ retribution if it should go through, Le Pen said, “If France leaves the European Union, the European Union no longer exists.”

The leader of France’s hard-right Front National party believes the collapse is not a matter of “if” but “when,” saying the EU “shines from the light of a dead star” while its leaders are struggling to play for time “at the cost of billions trying to hold this structure up.”

As a “revealing” piece of evidence supporting her opinion, Le Pen cited one of Brussels’ recent punitive measures.

“The threat of condemnation of countries which do not accept migrants – a €250,000 fine for each migrant not taken in – is in itself revealing,” Le Pen said.

The European Commission unveiled plans earlier in May to impose a penalty of around €250,000 per rejected refugee on countries that refuse to share the burden of Europe’s migrant crisis.

For countries such as Poland, which is adamantly opposed to taking in refugees, the new compulsory measure would result in a fine of over €1 billion ($1.1 billion), given its existing quota of 6,500 people.

“The threats, the blackmail, now used systematically by the European Union is, above all, a gigantic problem of weakness,” Le Pen said.

Commenting on the migrant crisis, Le Pen said the EU is using immigrants as a tool to drive down labor costs across the 28-country bloc.

READ MORE: Human traffickers exploit EU migrant crisis to increase child smuggling – EU report

“That’s why the European Union supports tens of millions of immigrants in the coming years which will come onto the European Union labor market to push down wages,” she said. “So, in fact they have betrayed, if you like, the working class.”

Marine Le Pen has been a vocal supporter of the UK leaving the European Union, a move that the National Front hopes would inspire a similar “Frexit” campaign.

According to a March poll, 53 percent of French citizens surveyed would like to hold a Brexit-like referendum on France’s membership in the EU. 

When asked if she feared any consequences for a “Frexit,” or Brussels’ retribution if it should go through, Le Pen said, “If France leaves the European Union, the European Union no longer exists.”

See also: Engineered Refugee Crisis to Justify "Safe Havens" in Syria (7/9/15) by Tony Cartalucci | Land Destroyer and other articles listed below.

The article below is formed from the start of Germany is 'exploiting' refugee suffering to recruit 'slaves' via mass immigration - Marine Le Pen (7/9/15) | RT. The remainder of the original article consists of stories about appeals by European pro-refugee-rights to let in untold numbers of refugees. ₁ 

As Germany welcomes thousands of refugees, with industries seeking ways to integrate newcomers into country's workforce, Berlin's move to temporarily bypass EU-wide regulations has met strong criticism from France's Marine Le Pen who accused Germany of recruiting "slaves."

The German drive to open its doors to refugees, as well as debated plans to resettle asylum seekers across the EU has been met with strong criticism from a number of politicians, including the leader of right-wing French party National Front, Marine Le Pen who accused Germany of imposing its immigration policy on the EU.

"Germany probably thinks its population is moribund, and it is probably seeking to lower wages and continue to recruit slaves through mass immigration," Marine Le Pen said in Marseille, refusing to admit that pure benevolence was Germany's only motive._{#fn2" id="txt2"> 2} 

Le Pen criticised European politicians for "exploiting the suffering of these poor people who cross the Mediterranean Sea."

"They are exploiting the death of the unfortunate in these trips organized by mafia, they show pictures, they exhibit the death of a child without any dignity just to blame the European consciences and make them accept the current situation," the National Front leader said.

Following days of chaos and uncertainty, thousands of refugees – mostly Syrians – were bused from Hungary to Austria, and then brought by train to Germany, after the countries agreed on allowing migrants access, bypassing the Dublin Regulation.

READ MORE: Thousands of refugees reach Germany after Hungary and Austria surrender to exodus

By Sunday night almost 11,000 migrants arrived in Germany, authorities in Munich said. Germany in August registered more than 100,000 asylum seekers with some 800,000 refugees overall expected to come to Germany in total this year – four times the level of last year.

Footnote[s]

#fn1" id="fn1">1. #txt1">↑  I have yet to see one of these pro-refugee-rights activists speak up against the West's attempt at regime-change in Syria, as Marine Le Pen has. This proxy war, overtly supported, since March 2011, by France, the United Kingdom, Turkey, the United States, Israel and the dictatorships of Saudi Arabia and Qatar has, so far, cost the lives of over 220,000 Syrians and is the principle driver of the refugee crisis. See YouTube Video of 3/1/13, Marine Le Pen and Alexander Lukashenko on Syrian Crisis, Marine Le Pen France's new Joan of Arc for Russians (22/3/12) | Live Leak, Le Pen says French government hiding true number of jihadists (20/11/14) | rfi English, Europe's Migrant Crisis Caused by West's Destabilization of Syria – Le Pen (29/8/15) | Sputnik News.

#fn2" id="fn2">2. #txt2">↑  How the RT author can know that Marine Le Pen is wrong about the motives of Angela Merkel and the German corporate interests she represents, is not explained in this artcle.

#OtherArticles" id="OtherArticles">See also: Marine Le Pen: migrants flee from death, brought by French (4/9/15) | Pravda.ru, Stephen Harper Promotes War in Syria as a "Solution to the Refugee Crisis": Canadian Government Is to Blame for the Death of Aylan Kudri (6/9/15) | Global Research, Enhanced US-NATO Military Action in Syria is Contemplated as a "Solution to the Refugee Crisis" (5/9/15) | Global Research, The Guardian: "bomb Assad and save the refugees" (4/9/15) | OffGuardian, Germany is 'exploiting' refugee suffering to recruit 'slaves' via mass immigration - Marine Le Pen (7/9/15) | RT, Europe has to deal with refugee disaster caused by US - Nicolas Maduro to RT (7/9/15) | RT, US to blame for Europe's refugee crisis: Venezuela president (/9/15) | PressTV

[This article is formed belatedly from excerpts in two RT reports that are a few months old, but it may be of interest to people concerned about US activities in Europe.] Former French Prime minister Francois Fillon, told the public broadcaster France 5 in February that the United States was attempting to “unleash a war in Europe, which would end in catastrophe.” He added that once a war broke out, the US would attempt to distance itself from it. “Total war caused [by the] Ukrainian conflict is absolutely unacceptable. And really there is no reason for it," he said. Fillon accused the US of suffering from “blindness” and an oversimplified approach to reality, which saw them constantly attempting to “solve all problems by force.”

He further said Washington was always attempting to force others to join its camp, a mistaken approach given that a country like Ukraine has ties to both Europe and Russia.

"The Americans have made one mistake after another and today they have simply been discredited,” said Fillon.

He added that attempting to punish Russia with sanctions was like trying to intimidate a bear with a pin prick. He further commended recent efforts by French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to open a dialogue with Moscow.

“The West is trying to imagine today Russia as a threat to the whole world, while deliberately forgetting that Russia is a large and truly a great country, not to mention a nuclear power,” he said.

“Humiliating Russia is simply unacceptable.”

Also on Saturday, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that Europe was part of “a common civilization with Russia,” saying they needed to avoid conflict on the continent.

“The interests of the Americans with the Russians are not the interests of Europe and Russia,” he said, adding that “we do not want the revival of a Cold War between Europe and Russia.

"Crimea cannot be blamed for seceding from Ukraine – a country in turmoil – and choosing to join Russia, said former president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy. He also added that Ukraine “is not destined to join the EU.”" Source: http://rt.com/news/230283-sarkozy-crimea-russia-blamed/

On the same day, Marine Le Pen said that "European capitals do not have the wisdom to refuse to be dependent on US positions on Ukraine."

"Regarding Ukraine, we behave like American lackeys," she said, before warning that “the aim of the Americans is to start a war in Europe to push NATO to the Russian border."

She went on to accuse European leaders of turning a blind eye to the Ukrainian government’s “bombing of civilians,” adding that both those in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine believed the country should be federalized.

Le Pen has regularly criticized the EU for its policy on Ukraine and its alleged lack of independence from Washington.

In September 2014, she told Le Monde that the ongoing crisis in Ukraine is “all the European Union’s fault,” saying Brussels had “blackmailed the country to choose between Europe and Russia.”

In June, she similarly told RT’s Sophie Shevardnadze that there were “no independent states left in Europe,” saying many of their foreign policy mistakes in recent times had been made “under Washington’s influence.”

Source: Crisis in Ukraine is ‘all EU’s fault’ – France’s Marine Le Pen

See also: The CIA's Torture Program (12/12/14) by Paul Craig Roberts.

The shocking revelations of CIA torture techniques give France a reason to exit NATO, French National Front party leader Marine Le Pen said on Saturday. Le Pen's plain policy advice here exposes the ever-less defensible position of nations that continue to dance to NATO policy. Australia should also distance itself from NATO and the US. At the moment Australia is supporting all manner of war-crimes internationally by maintaining close association with the United States and NATO. The recent revelations about the United States's secret program of torture and maltreatment of prisoners, and failure to observe Geneva conventions on torture add to a chilling picture of a rogue United States similar to Nazi Germany on the brink of WW2 - but much bigger. The following article is adapted from CIA torture is reason for France to exit NATO – Le Pen (13/12/14) from RT.

“If indeed everyone is outraged by the tortures used by the US then, let’s leave NATO,” Le Pen said during an interview with Europe 1 radio channel. She wrote the same statement on her Twitter account: Marine Le Pen@MLP_officiel

Follow

The US Senate Intelligence Committee's CIA “torture report,” which details the CIA’s use of torture on prisoners in the wake of 9/11, was released by the Senate on Tuesday.

After four years of research at a cost of over $40 million, the findings unveiled the “enhanced interrogation techniques,” or EITs, used within the walls of covert, overseas prisons by the CIA.

The report raised serious questions over controversial tactics which included sleep deprivation, waterboarding, rectal feeding, and others. Dianne Feinstein, the committee chair, admitted that the techniques were “torture,” though the word was never used in the report.

READ MORE: 10 most shocking facts we found in CIA torture report

The findings also revealed that the CIA’s treatment breached the body's legal mandate, as investigators said they found evidence of the intelligence agency’s systematic deception of Congress. Despite the methods used, the agency failed to gather information that foiled subsequent threats to US national security, the report found.

Since the report's release, prominent human rights groups have demanded to prosecute the responsible US officials listed in the document.

Despite widespread criticism and a wave of outrage sparked by the results of the Senate investigation, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Wednesday that it will not be pursuing charges against those involved in the interrogations.

READ MORE: Facing justice: UN, HRW, Amnesty call for prosecuting US officials for torture

UN special rapporteur for torture Juan Mendez told RT that the report will likely create momentum that will lead to justice. He insisted that countries complicit in the CIA torture need to carry out their own investigations.

“We have lived without prosecutions now for several years, but the experience shows that when truth telling is done honestly and sincerely, it generates a debate and the debate then generates a momentum towards justice,” he said in an interview on Thursday.

Le Pen has previously criticized French President Francois Hollande’s close ties with the US and called on France to leave NATO.

Speaking to RT's Sophie Shevardnadze in June, Le Pen said that NATO is an opportunity for the United States to extend its influence.