Jean-Marie Le Pen or the Moroccan tropism

HISTORY. Jean-Marie Le Pen, champion of the French far right, passed his weapon to the left on January 7, at the age of 96. Advocating “national preference” and the fight against immigration to the detriment, among others, of the Moroccan community in France, he paradoxically developed a certain tropism for the Cherifian kingdom coupled with a strong admiration for King Hassan II

Ten years ago to the day, January 7, 2015, the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo is the victim of a terrorist attack claimed by a branch of Al Qaeda. While a majority of French people, in solidarity, display the slogan “I am Charlie”, Jean-Marie Le Pen chooses another: “I am Charlie Martel”. These sulphurous remarks from the founder of the National Front (FN) are an allusion to a popular reference in far-right circles. The battle of Poitiers, which occurred in the year 732, would, according to this reading, be the supreme symbol of the French rampart against Islam and the Arabs.