Macron: 'America's founding principles have been lost'
French President Emanuel Macron blasted the US mainstream media in an interview with the New York Times for “legitimizing” violence, stating that it was a sign that the nation’s “founding principles have been lost.”
Macron’s interview comes in the wake of terror attacks on French soil, as multiple Islamist terror attacks last month claimed several innocent lives, starting with the beheading of a teacher, Samuel Paty, for showing cartoons mocking the prophet Mohammed.
“When France was attacked five years ago, every nation in the world supported us,” Macron stated, referring to the November 2015 Islamic terrorist attacks that resulted in the deaths of well over 100 people in Paris.
“So when I see, in that context, several newspapers which I believe are from countries that share our values — journalists who write in a country that is the heir to the Enlightenment and the French Revolution — when I see them legitimizing this violence, and saying that the heart of the problem is that France is racist and Islamophobic, then I say the founding principles have been lost,” he said.
The New York Times noted that France has suffered more terror attacks than any other Western nation since 2015, with 250 people being the victims of predominantly Muslim radicals.
Following the recent beheading of a teacher, “Macron responded with a crackdown on Muslims accused of extremism, carrying out dozens of raids and vowing to shut down aid groups,” The report said. “He also made a vocal recommitment to secularism. Muslim leaders around the world criticized Mr. Macron’s and his aides’ aggressive response, which they said focused on peaceful Muslim groups. The president of Turkey called for boycotts of French products, as varied as cheese and cosmetics. The next month saw a new wave of attacks, including three murders in a Nice church and an explosion at a French ceremony in Saudi Arabia.”
Macron has pushed back against the far-left this year, thwarting attempts of rewriting history and tearing down statues.
“We will be inflexible when it comes to tackling racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination, and new strong decisions will be made to reinforce the egality of chances,” Macron said. “But this noble fight is perverted when it turns into communitarianism, into a false rewriting of history.
“This is unacceptable when it is picked up by separatists. I tell you very clearly tonight my dear fellow citizens, the Republic will not erase any trace or name from its history,” Macron continued. “It will not forget any of its deeds or take down any statue. What we need to do is to look all together with lucidity on all of our history and all our memory. Our relation to Africa in particular so we can build a present and a possible future from one to the other side of Mediterranean.”
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