Gaullist fights “Tooth and Nail” for Sovereignty

Sophie&Co’s June 9 Interview with Marine Le Pen

Minor edit for TIN by Carolyn Bennett

Marine Le Pen is a French lawyer and politician, a Member of the European Parliament, and Leader of France’s Front Nacional Party (the National Front). I was interested particularly in her insightful comments on sovereignty because I believe them to be instructive of U.S. domestic and foreign policy, its plutocracy over democracy, and its seriously flawed character and practice in international relations.

“Sovereignty is the foundation of democracy,” Marine Le Pen said. “Without sovereignty, there is no democracy. Having the freedom to cast a ballot in a ballot box is one thing; but if the people you elected with your ballot have no power because the actual power was transferred to a supranational body, then we are no longer in a democratic process. … ‘There are two ways of establishing totalitarianism – either all of the powers are united together, or we transfer all the power to a supranational body.’ …”

Marine Le Pen’s Gaullist foreign policy

… [W]e are for leaving NATO, for France leaving NATO, we have a [Gaullist] vision of what international politics must be like. 

We are for developing our relations with Russia, without breaking ties with the United States. 

We believe that France must maintain its relations with all of the world’s great nations, and we do not want [imposed on us] a way of seeing things by anybody. 

We aspire to have the freedom to determine the quality and the level of our international relations.

Defend ourselves against whom? Defense against China? Le Pen is asked and answers, The suggestion “almost makes you laugh.” 

De Gaulle, 1961, at Wikipedia

Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (November 22, 1890 – November 9, 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II and in 1945 secured a seat for France on the United Nations Security Council. De Gaulle led the writing of a new constitution founding the Fifth Republic (1958) and served as its first president (1959 to 1969). 

Charles de Gaulle’s foreign policy strategy as president (Gaullism) asserted France as a major power “independent of ‘Anglo Saxon’ (American and British) influences. He withdrew France from NATO military command—although remaining a member of the Western alliance—and twice vetoed Britain's entry into the European Community. [Wikipedia note] 

Marine Le Pen’s Danger warning of Singular Voice

“[S]uch and such decides who is on the good side and who is on the bad side, and this can change at any moment. 

The good guys of today will be the bad guys of tomorrow, and maybe the bad guys of today will become good tomorrow── if Washington decides that it is to their advantage to make them good.

 It is a shame, since there is a substantial amount of mistakes that have been made at an international level under Washington’s influence, especially in Syria. 

“We were the only ones among the French political parties to oppose intervention in Syria, the first and only ones who, from the beginning, said that we were arming Islamic fundamentalists, who would, if they did win, implement a reign of terror like they did in Libya. This was, once again, because of us. We helped them come to power.

“This is the American method, the international American method: they defend their interests, or they think that they are defending them, since sometimes they make serious mistakes. What is terrible is that European countries no longer have a say in things. There are no more sovereign nations in Europe that can be the voice of reason for peaceful settlement of conflicts, the voice of balance between different interests of different nations.”

Marine Le Pen’s pro-Sovereignty, anti-Trans-Atlantic Free Trade scheme

“[T]his is an opportunity for the United States to carry out military integration, and maybe tomorrow, economic integration, to extend the scope of its influence. The free-trade agreement that the United States want to sign at any price is really just another way to tie the European Union, in a quasi-definitive way, to the United States.

“This is, once again, a loss of independence, not to mention the catastrophic consequences that this free-trade agreement would have for us in terms of agriculture, industry, defense, etc. So this is much more a geopolitical treaty than a purely commercial or economic treaty.”

If within the theoretical concept of a free trade agreement (FTA) ── in addition to eliminating tariffs, import quotas, and preferences on most (if not all) goods and services traded among trade bloc signatories ── people are free to move across countries, it would also be considered an open border” agreement. It may also be considered the second stage of economic integration. [Wikipedia note]

Le Pen says the National Front “formally contests and will fight tooth and nail the “ultra-liberal policy,” the “transfer of sovereignty” implicit in the signing of “the Trans-Atlantic treaty with the United States.” She says she believes the trade agreement “goes against the sovereignty of the people and the economic, social, and international interests of France.”

Something to think about. 

Sources and notes 

“Marine Le Pen: ‘EU robbed us of all liberties; we should fight to get them back’”

Sophie Shevardnadze, SophieCo,_RT, June 9, 2014, http://rt.com/shows/sophieco/164660-europe-politicans-victims-ukraine

Elections to the European Parliament have brought groundbreaking changes in the structure of EU’s most powerful body: right wing parties along with Eurosceptics, and outsiders just a few years ago, have now taken the political scene.

Front Nacional party in France gets the majority - signifying that people want change; the same with other nations.

What now? Is the European change of course inevitable? What will happen to the Union itself?  [Sophie Shevardnadze asks]

Sophie&Co spoke with special guest Marine Le Pen, leader of the France’s Front Nacional Party.

Also

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Gaulle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_trade_agreement

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Le_Pen

“Eric Cantor loses U.S. House seat in shock upset” AFP Michael Mathes reporting, June 10, 2014 10:36 PM:

Economics professor at a Richmond, Virginia, college David Brat defeats powerful party insider and U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the former reportedly backed by the Tea Party, the latter the Republican Party. Primary election all 243 precincts reported 55.5 percent Brat, 44.5 percent Cantor. Brat “barely received media airtime, was outspent by Cantor by more than 25 to one.”

http://news.yahoo.com/cantor-loses-us-house-seat-shock-upset-005050699.html;_ylt=AwrBJR4zBJpTo2cAeYrQtDMD

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