Chrysoula Zacharopoulou is Secretary of State to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, responsible for Development and International Partnerships. She responds to Jordan Bardealla’s comments.
Chrysoula Zacharopoulou published a column that she sent to our media:
“Alongside all dual nationals, I say no to your nationalist preference. With my metic face, I say yes to the French Republic”
For two years, as Secretary of State for Development and International Partnerships, I have had the honour of representing our country in the four corners of the world. With my foreign face! I am Franco-Greek, but I do not serve France half-heartedly. I do it with all the dedication that has driven me since I chose France as my adopted homeland.
Mr Bardella, I followed your press conference attentively, hoping to understand – finally – what you are proposing to the French.
Here you claim to prohibit dual nationals from occupying “strategic functions”. Now is the time for all the clarifications since, in your eyes, I am suspected, as any person with two nationalities would be, of serving foreign interests.
Your thought is an insult to every French woman and every binational French person. After Jean-Marie Le Pen’s “national preference”, you are outdoing it with the “nationalist preference”! Because you want to prioritize Franco-French people and Franco-foreigners.
I warn everyone and call for action against this escalation.
Purity. We know where the purity trials that you want to investigate begin, but history has taught us that we never know where or how they end… Sort the officials, as you want to do, according to their possible dual nationality , ignores most of the precautions that are already taken for what you call “strategic functions”.
Only loyalty counts: loyalty to the interests of our country. This is scrupulously measured, verified and monitored if necessary. Loyalty! This is precisely what your party of “patriots” is lacking. How many of your colleagues in the European Parliament have been convicted for taking their orders, and part of their remuneration, from Moscow? Are you sure of the loyalty and solidity of each of your candidates in the legislative elections?
Today, you are seeking more to fracture the country to better mask your unpreparedness; to hide the vagueness – however abysmal – of your program. Your formatted smile and your sophisticated formulas will change nothing, your game is clear: you target, like the founders of your party, the figure of the Other.
You are targeting dedicated servants of the state! Twenty-five months at the Quai d’Orsay and I have seen so many loyal and talented dual nationals whose dual culture is an asset for our foreign policy. I can’t accept it. You are attacking all those who identify with the binational figures who made French history, from Léon Gambetta to the Manouchians, from Robert Schuman to Joséphine Baker!
What signal are you sending with this measure whose importance you want to downplay? That dual nationals are not trustworthy? What will you say, then, to the many doctors and nurses concerned who have taken an oath for the health of the French? Should their care also be suspected? What will you also say to the soldiers of the Foreign Legion who serve the security of our country, often at the sacrifice of their lives? Is their mixed blood less valuable on the battlefield?
Your nationalist preference is an insult. An insult that dishonors France and its history. An insult which will cut our homeland from part of its roots and which will reject part of its children.
Alongside all dual nationals, I say no to your nationalist preference. With my metic face, I say yes to the French Republic.
