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“Coup fantasies” in France: rumors frighten Paris - right-wing alliance against Macron?

2021-05-05T22:37:41.108Z


France is going through turbulent times. Corona is worsening tensions in the country. Now there is talk of "coup fantasies" by the military against President Macron.


France is going through turbulent times.

Corona is worsening tensions in the country.

Now there is talk of "coup fantasies" by the military against President Macron.

Paris - is France in danger?

A year before the presidential election, the country is not only fighting the pandemic.

New terrorist attacks and the never-ending violence in the suburbs create an explosive atmosphere.

Coup rumors startle political Paris.

It is shortly before midnight on May 1st in the 19th arrondissement. Shots echo through the Parisian night. Julie, 30 years old, hears her two young children being woken up and crying by the noise outside her window. A little later there is another exchange of fire. “I never thought that I would have to experience something like this on my own doorstep,” the young mother told a

Figaro

reporter, shocked

.

“Something like that” - this is the war of the gangs (it is mainly about the drug crack), which is being waged more and more violently on the streets of the cities of France.

Added to this are the strong social tensions in the so-called banlieus and repeated attacks by Islamist terrorists in which people die on the street - like a policewoman recently in an insidious knife attack.

France: Former generals are writing fire letters - where do the "coup fantasies" come from that they condemn?

A fire letter from former generals has now hit political France like a bomb.

The army leadership has clearly distanced itself from the content and sharply condemned the “coup fantasies”.

But the fear of a strengthening of right-wing extremists remains.

"For a return of our rulers to decency" was the title of the fire letter in the ultra-right magazine

Valeurs Actuelles

.

It was signed by a good 20 former generals who saw France as “falling apart”: it was “Islamism and the hordes of the banlieue”, but also left-wing circles and critical analyzes of the French colonial era were to blame.

The dramatic description of the situation culminated in a barely concealed call for a coup: If the government did not finally act, there could be a “final explosion and an intervention by our active comrades” to protect French civilization and nation.

Emmanuel Macron: France's military and Marine Le Pen together against the President?

In order to avert the danger, the ex-generals declare themselves “ready to support politicians who guarantee the protection of the nation”.

As a result, right-wing populist Marine Le Pen called on the military to support her in the presidential election against President Emmanuel Macron * one year from now.

Prime Minister Jean Castex reacted indignantly: The head of the Rassemblement National (National Collection Movement) openly supports an initiative "against the state".

With this, the 52-year-old shows her true colors after years of attempts to "demonize" her father Jean-Marie Le Pen's party.

France: Chief of Staff announces disciplinary action over “coup fantasies”

Chief of Staff François Lecointre condemned the "coup fantasies" and announced disciplinary measures against the signatories.

Lecointre emphasized that the appeal “in no way reflects the mental constitution of today's army” and its 210,000 members - even if thousands of active members of the army are said to have joined the fire letter.

President Macron as Commander in Chief has so far been silent on the affair.

The 43-year-old may not want to mess with the army again.

Shortly after taking office in the summer of 2017, Macron caused considerable displeasure when he announced austerity measures for the armed forces and the respected chief of staff, Pierre de Villiers, resigned.

Since then, the five-star general de Villiers has repeatedly warned of massive displeasure among the population, which could "become concentrated", most recently because of the Corona * pandemic.

Journalist calms down after a fire letter: ex-commander "old curmudgeons who didn't understand anything"

Democracy advocates in France are now hoping that General Jérôme Pellistrandi's assessment will come true.

The editor-in-chief of

Défense Nationale

magazine

considers the ex-commanders to be isolated "curmudgeons who have understood nothing".

And Defense Minister Francoise Parly tried to belittle the letter as an action by “eighty-year-olds in house slippers”.

But it seems like a bang from the extreme right.

One thing is certain: the election campaign in France has started.

(Alexander Weber with dpa) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-05-05

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