The founder of the National Front party and MEP, Jean-Marie Le Pen, is an 86-year-old politician is a the legend of France. As a teenager, participated in the resistance movement. He fought with France's airborne troops in Indochina and Algeria. This old man with difficulty rising from a chair politely declined my hand. He damaged his left eye in a street brawl, but he sees women perfectly with his right eye. This Frenchman is very much a Frenchman. "Who is this beauty, who came to us from the Russian frost?" he asks me when I greet him. It's flattery, of course, but what woman does not melt at such a compliment?
Daria Aslamova: Monsieur Le Pen, you first made the statement "I am not Charlie". How come?
Jean-Marie Le Pen: I am not Charlie Hebdo. This anarchist rag is a direct enemy of our National Front party, and a few years ago its journalists were collecting signatures on a petition demanding our closure. And all these politicians who came to the demonstration - they too are not Charlie but 'charlots'! (so-called French clowns, comedians - DA) They can organize a big spectacle with strong media support and the slogan 'I am Charlie', temporarily mobilizing the nation, but they are not able to protect the country from the influx of immigrants from the south. I would like to be 'Charlie Martella'. (as French naval battleships were named, after the French military leader Charles Martel - DA) Martell, this brilliant French soldier, in 732 stopped the Arab invasion in Poitiers.
DA: But now we're in 2015!The National Front is the far-right party in France. Founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen in 1972, for many years it has consistently struggled against immigration from non-European countries, advocates for traditional values and independent policy-making for Paris, without the dictates of Brussels. It currently firmly opposes anti-Russian sanctions.
J-M LP: Yes, and we live in a France with between 15 and 20 million Muslims. All French governments, left or right, allowed immigration, and even encouraged it. Every year another three hundred thousand people come, and they're not looking for work. 6 to 8 million people in France live on social benefits, which these immigrants come for. This is the result of a common Christian and European decadence. Europe has removed borders within the EU. And now, from the southern border, which nobody protects, leak hundreds of thousands of people into France. The whole thing amounts to intra-European betrayal.
DA: But France itself is partly to blame for this. People are fleeing from war and chaos. After all, France has turned Libya into ruins!
J-M LP: It was real crazy to get involved in a war with Libya. French planes bombed Gaddafi's tanks at a time when he was preparing to take Benghazi - the main stronghold of the Salafis (Wahhabis). Today complete anarchy reigns in Libya. From there, arms have been spreading across North Africa, and French leaders like Sarkozy are directly responsible for it.
DA: What do you think about the Ukrainian crisis and the division between Europe and Russia?
J-M LP: It was provoked by NATO, this Ukrainian crisis, as it tried to get closer to Russia's borders. The position of our party is this: the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is a family quarrel. After all, Russia was born in Kiev. And neither Europeans nor the Americans need to interfere in this family drama. Russian and Ukrainians themselves will understand each other. But there is no doubt that the United States continues to treat Russia as the Soviet Union, and to try to shake your government with conflicts in Georgia and Ukraine.
DA: You are a member of the European Parliament looking into the situation with the downed Malaysian Boeing. What do you think about this crime?
J-M LP: The surprising fact is that all investigations are conducted in an atmosphere of great secrecy. I'm no expert, but it is clear to me that this kind of attack requires military professionals of the highest level, and high-precision weapons, which for militias are not simple to acquire and use. And the obvious question is: why was this civilian aircraft flying over a war zone? Who let this happen?
DA: This year a transatlantic partnership between the United States and the European Union will be signed. What are the benefits it promises Europe?
J-M LP: Yes, it would be a disaster! We've turned into an economic colony of America. The EU is moving in the wrong direction - to the West, and it is necessary to turn to the East, Russia. We need a united Europe - from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but a Europe of sovereign nations. Russia has demographic problems, and it is increasingly difficult for it to keep Siberia. However, Siberia - a geo-strategic location - is absolutely necessary for the survival of the whole of Europe. We need a strong alliance between Europe, with its high technology, and Russia, with its natural resources. If we do not, then our continent, with its demographic depression, in the cultural and economic sense, will simply disappear.
Look at Germany: it's a gold-plated coffin full of dead bodies. The Germans are a dying nation. How many children give birth in Europe? Per woman, on average, 1.3 children. And just to keep the previous level of the population requires 2.5. And now look at the world around us. Muslim countries, India - per woman, between 3 and 5 children. I've said nothing about China. If it cancels the rule of 'one family - one child', a population explosion will happen that will shake the entire planet. But Europe must be saved individually, without relying on bureaucrats in Brussels. France should withdraw from the EU to limit immigration and to solve economic problems on its own. We need to get the French to understand that our salvation lies in national sovereignty.
DA: But your National Front party is not even invited to the general demonstration against terrorism!
J-M LP: Because we are the defenders of the national idea. We had to be at the forefront, as it is the National Front that spoke of the urgent problems of immigration for many years! And on the possibility of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism.
DA: However, in the Charlie Hebdo affair, there are many unanswered questions.
J-M LP: I agree. These Kouachi brothers leaving their ID cards behind reminded me of that passport falling out of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 and miraculously surviving intact. Downtown New York City burned, but the passport was fine. They now tell people that the terrorists are idiots, which is why, they say, they left their documents in the car. The shooting at Charlie Hebdo has the hallmarks of being a secret service operation, but we have no proof. I do not think that the French authorities organized this crime, but they allowed this crime to be committed. This is only a guess.
DA: Why did the Charlie Hebdo magazine constantly insult Muslims and Christians, but hardly touched the Jews?
J-M LP: Because the Jews know how to defend themselves. Pay attention to the Femen organization. They can run around naked in front of the Pope, naked in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, but they never do that in the synagogue.
DA: Europe mourns the dead cartoonist, but does not see the death of Russian journalists in the Donbass.
J-M LP: Because it's real journalists, not the Trotskyists and anarchists at Charlie Hebdo. If I killed their colleagues in other French media, Charlie Hebdo staff would, with pleasure, 'joke' about their deaths.
DA: What are the chances of success for your daughter Marine Le Pen in the next presidential election?
J-M LP: Yes, she can win, but I'm afraid she will inherit the ruins of this country. France is economically, and irresistibly, heading for the abyss.
In 2002, Jean-Marie Le Pen received second place in the presidential election with nearly 18% of the vote, but eventually lost to Jacques Chirac.
In 2011, the party was taken over by his daughter Marine Le Pen, and a year later in the presidential election Marine got almost 20% of the vote. The National Front holds seats in the lower house of parliament. The party's greatest success to date came in the European Parliament elections in 2014, when the National Front increased its number of seats from 3 to 22.
Recent polls suggest that at the next presidential elections in 2017, Marine Le Pen has every chance winning.
Comment: At the very least this shows that there are some French politicians who are clued in to what is really going on behind the scenes. Will the French arrest Le Pen for stating the obvious? It's possible. They've already arrested dozens of people for exercising their 'right to free speech' after the CH attacks. And Le Pen does say a lot of the right things in his interview. However, he's clearly 'on point' with the current propaganda talking points with his blatant Islamophobia. He "saw it coming" because of immigration? If he were really being honest, and not selling his racist anti-immigration position, he'd call it like it is: Islamic terrorism is not a Muslim phenomenon, it is a CIA/Mossad/MI6 phenomenon.