Generals call for Macron’s overthrow over Islamist ‘danger’ to France

Twenty retired generals have ­created a political storm with a call for a military takeover if President Emmanuel Macron fails to halt France’s ‘disintegration’.

Emmanuel Macron poses for selfies in La Mosson neighbourhood during his visit to Montpellier, southern France, to discuss security and policing. Picture: AFP

Twenty retired generals have ­created a political storm in France with a call for a military takeover if President Emmanuel Macron fails to halt the “disintegration” of the country at the hands of ­Islamists.

The open letter, published in right-wing news magazine Valeurs Actuelles, comes after a ­Tunisian Islamist stabbed to death a 49-year-old woman who worked at a police station in the outskirts of Paris last Friday.

Mr Macron’s government has condemned the call, led by Jean-Pierre Fabre-Bernadac, a retired gendarmerie general, comparing it to the failed coup by generals against president Charles de Gaulle 60 years ago.

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

The letter was also signed by 80 other retired officers and supported by Marine Le Pen, presidential candidate and leader of the far-right National Rally.

“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 letter says.

The generals said 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”.

They accused the state of fanning hatred by allowing brutal police action against protesters from the yellow-vest movement who had tried to “express their despair” two years ago. If nothing was done, there would be “an ­explosion and then intervention by our comrades on active service in the dangerous mission of protecting our civilised values and the safety of our compatriots”, they predicted.

“There is no time to waffle, or tomorrow civil war will put an end to this growing chaos and the dead, for whom you will bear ­responsibility, will be counted in the thousands.”

They said they had broad support in the military and were “ready to support politicians who take into account the safety of the nation”.

The appeal was hailed by Ms Le Pen, who is campaigning to unseat Mr Macron in the elections in a year’s time. “I invite you to join our action and take part in the battle that is opening and is above all the battle of France,” she replied on the Valeurs Actuelles site. “As a citizen and as a woman politician, I share your suffering.”

Ms Le Pen’s National Rally said the generals’ appeal was in line with the views of “patriots” such as General Pierre de Villiers, former chief of the defence staff, who was sacked by Mr Macron in 2017.

Defence Minister Florence Parly dismissed the letter as the words of “a quartet of generals in their slippers … who no longer have any role in our armed forces and only represent themselves”.

“The words of Ms Le Pen ­reflect a serious ignorance of the institution of the army, which is worrying for someone who wants to be commander-in-chief,” she said.

Industry Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher also attacked Ms Le Pen: “Sixty years to the day after the putsch by the generals against General de Gaulle the mask is falling. Marine Le Pen is far right and it’s exactly the same story as 60 years ago.”

Ms Le Pen and the political right have cited last week’s killing in Rambouillet as further proof that Mr Macron’s government is soft on terrorism and unable to face the threat to French life from the immigrant Muslim population, which is perceived to be ­expanding from the bleak housing estates around the big cities. The killer arrived in France as an illegal immigrant in 2009 but was given residence in December.

Conservatives have joined Ms Le Pen in demanding Mr Macron and his centrist government ­recognise that immigration from the Muslim world is at the heart of a collapse in law and order and the most ­recent terrorist attacks.

“They must stop denying the link between terrorism and immigration,” said Valerie Pecresse, president of the Paris regional council and a contender for next year’s presidential election.

“We have to take control of our frontiers.”

The Times