Twenty retired French generals call for MILITARY RULE in the country

Twenty retired French generals have called for military rule if Emmanuel Macron fails to halt the ‘disintegration’ of the country ‘at the hands of Islamists’, in an open letter published ahead of next year’s presidential election. 

The open letter, published in Valeurs Actuelles, a right-wing news magazine, claims a military coup might be necessary to stop a ‘civil war’ in France.

The letter has been condemned by Macron’s government, who compared it to the failed coup by generals against President de Gaulle 60 years ago. 

However, far-right National Rally leader Marine Le Pen hailed the letter, which was signed by 80 other retired officers, as well as the 20 generals.    

France’s President Emmanuel Macron, right, and French Armies Chief Staff General Francois Lecointre, left, stand in the command car as they review troops before the start of the Bastille Day military parade last year

Far Right leader Marine Le Pen has thrown her support behind the ex soldiers who wrote the letter

The lead signatory was Christian Piquemal, 80, who commanded the Foreign Legion before losing his privileges as a retired officer after being arrested while taking part in an anti-Islam demonstration in 2016.

It was written by Jean-Pierre Fabre-Bernadac, a former officer, and signed by 1000 others who were in lower ranks. 

The incendiary letter reads: ‘France is in danger. Several mortal perils threaten her. Even in retirement, we remain soldiers of France and cannot in the present circumstances remain indifferent to the fate of our beautiful country.’ 

The retired officers claimed that France was ‘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’.

Macron also came under fire with the retired officers blasting the state for allowing brutal police action against yellow vest protesters in the country. 

In a chilling call, the letter claimed that the country would ‘explode’ into civil war if ‘nothing was done’, which would lead to the deaths of thousands. 

 They also claimed they had broad support in the military and were ‘ready to support’ politicians who focused on the ‘safety of a nation’. 

The thinly-veiled declaration of support was seized upon by far-right Le Pen, who wrote on the site of the magazine where the letter was published: ‘I invite you to join our action and take part in the battle that is opening and is above all the battle of France. As a citizen and as a woman politician, I share your suffering.’

National Rally added that the letter reflected the views of ‘patriots’ like General Pierre de Villiers, former chief of the defence staff, who was sacked by Macron in 2017. 

The generals calling for a coup d’état: Former Le Pen candidates, Yellow Vest activists and an 80-year-old who was arrested at a rally in Calais

Christian Piquemal, stripped of his privileges by army chiefs

Piquemal, 80, a former general of the Foreign Legion, leads the signatories of the furious letter addressed to Emmanuel Macron.

He was stripped of his privileges as a retired officer after he was arrested at an anti-immigration rally in Calais in 2016.

Also in attendance were members of the anti-Islamic Pegida movement.

Christian Piquemal speaks at a rally in Calais in 2016. The rally was attended by Pegida, an anti-Islamic movement which originated in Germany

Piquemal denied knowledge that Pegida were also going to be there and denied his protest was racist. 

The general was said to have been the de-facto leader of the rally but was later acquitted by a judge, while others were handed fines. 

Piquemal, who retired in 2000, was stripped of his right to wear the uniform and lost his military officer’s ID card. However, his rank was not withdrawn. 

Emmanuel de Richoufftz, ‘general of the suburbs’

A graduate of the prestigious Saint-Cyr military school founded by Napoleon, de Richoufftz served as aide-de-camp to French Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy from 1981 to 1984.

He served in Iraq, Africa and Bosnia.

He is known as the ‘general of the suburbs’ after penning a book titled Another Late War in 1992.

Children celebrate the visit of French General Emmanuel De Richoufftz during his visit to the central Ivory Coast area of Sakassou in August, 2003

The general sought to alert the public to ‘real ghettos on the outskirts of cities’, warning that intervention was needed to integrate disadvantaged young people.

He represented Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party in local elections in Le Grau-du-Roi in 2019.

Last year he ditched Le Pen’s party to join up with Debout la France (‘France Arise’), a right-wing Euro-sceptic party.

Jean-Pierre Fabre-Bernadac, former police chief and Yellow Vest activist

Jean-Pierre Fabre-Bernadac, former police chief

Fabre-Bernadac is the manager of the Place Armes website which is ‘open to all retired, active, and reserve military personnel who love France and realise that France is on the brink.’

In 2018, he participated in Yellow Vest protests against Macron’s government.

In a recent radio appearance, Fabre-Bernadac lamented the ‘omerta’ which hangs around the issue of immigration, claiming that murders and assaults perpetrated by migrants were not given media coverage.

He called it a ‘terrible double standard.’

In another recent media appearance he said: ‘The French do not trust politicians but they trust the army.’ 

Antoine Martinez, former air force general

Martinez was also embroiled in the furore over the Calais rally organised by Piquemal in 2016.

He hosts the Volunteers for France website.

In a video filmed in November last year for the Volunteers for France Youtube channel, Martinez described how the coronavirus crisis masked what he believes is the more pressing matter of Islamic radicalisation. 

He wrote in an accompanying article: ‘There is no point, in fact, to project our soldiers into external theatres to protect us, if our leaders give up, despite the evidence, to name the enemy, and to fight him on our soil.’  

Antoine Martinez, former air force general

Francois Gaubert, Le Pen ally

Francois Gaubert

Gaubert, 77, another graduate of the elite Saint-Cyr officer training college, spent four decades in the Navy on operations abroad, including in Africa, the Indian and Pacific Oceans, in Berlin after the fall of the wall and in Sarajevo, at the end of the war in Bosnia.

He retired in 2002.

He joined Front National in December 2012 and was a candidate in council elections in Montpellier.

He was elected as a councillor in 2015.

Today he is National Rally councillor in Occitanie. 

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France‘s Armed Forces minister Florence Parly reacted with fury to the letter and said a coalition between politicised former military personnel and far-Right presidential candidate Le Pen would be an outrage.

Ms Parly said: ‘The irresponsible column published in Current values is only signed by retired soldiers, who no longer have any function in our armies and only represent themselves.’

Expressing her anger further on Twitter, Ms Parly said ‘neutrality and loyalty’ were two principles that were crucial to military conduct.

If Le Pen was to replace Emmanuel Macron as President of France following elections next year, she would become head of the country’s Armed Forces.

‘Madame Le Pen’s words reflect a serious misunderstanding of the military institution,’ said Ms Parly. Ms Parly said this was ‘worrying for anyone who wants to become head of the Armed Forces.’

The lead signatory was Christian Piquemal, 80, who commanded the Foreign Legion before losing his privileges as a retired officer after being arrested while taking part in an anti-Islam demonstration in 2016. It was written by Jean-Pierre Fabre-Bernadac, a former officer, and signed by 1000 others who were in lower ranks

Ms Parly continued. ‘The politicisation of the Armed Forces suggested by Madame Le Pen would weaken our military capability and therefore France.

‘The military are not there to campaign, but to defend France and protect the French.’

France’s current Fifth Republic has been threatened by military coups in the past, notably by far-Right activists who were eventually defeated as they tried to keep the former North African colony of Algeria.

There are some five million Muslims in France – the largest community of its kind in western Europe – and many have backgrounds in former colonies, such as Algeria.

The Rassemblement National used to be called the Front National (National Front), and was founded by Ms Le Pen’s father, the convicted anti-Semite, racist and Islamophobe, Jean-Marie Le Pen.