historian Patrick Weil takes on Marine Le Pen

POLITICS – It is always dangerous to invoke history. Even more so when it comes to using it for political purposes. Marine Le Pen has just experienced this, while Jordan Bardella promises the end of home rule in the event of victory in the legislative elections on July 7.

On the social network Le HuffPost among others — recall that the system is inherited from the 16th century, and that its removal would constitute a major break in the philosophy of French law.

« New fake news: “soil law dates from 1515. No, the decree of 1515 only targeted… inheritance. Our version of the soil law dates from 1889, and had the sole aim of guaranteeing that the children of immigrants, particularly Italians, could be called up for military service and mobilized for revenge against Germany. So there are only 130 years and for a reason that the left will have difficulty taking over “, she said this Thursday, June 27.

« Double inexactitude »

A very partial vision of history that Patrick Weil, political scientist and historian specializing in immigrant rights, corrected on the same social network, pointing out a “ double inexactitude » committed by Marine Le Pen. “ Before the Revolution, it was always through inheritance that the definition of being French was determined. It is a decision of Parliament (Paris court) in 1515 which creates the simple law of the soil. replied the researcher, who once campaigned on the left.

And the specialist continues: “ Since 1791, land law has been in the Constitution or in the law. In 1889, it was strengthened, not to provide soldiers, but to impose equality in military service and to ensure our sovereignty threatened by foreign enclaves in Algeria and the South-East.

No offense to Marine Le Pen, the removal of this republican pillar effectively turns its back on centuries of tradition. This is also pointed out by Serge Slama, professor of public law at the University of Grenoble. On the same social network, he emphasizes that Raymond Boulbès, “ who wrote the nationality code for de Gaulle » at the Liberation considered that land law and blood law were inseparable in a republican regime. Which gives, in the text “ the quality of French, once definitively established – whether it finds its origin in jus Sanguinis or in jus soli – is and remains indivisible ».

In a column published by The world On June 22, Patrick Weil warned of the paradigm shift that this measure would induce: “ this republican land law, progressive and conditional, is so fundamental to our national identity that even the Vichy regime maintained it in the nationality reform project that it had prepared. “. In the event of victory on July 7, Jordan Bardella intends to go well beyond.

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