Marine Le Pen: Stripping Jihadists Of French Citizenship An Absolute Necessity

The French politician Marine Le Pen, the leader of far-right National Front party, wouldn’t normally be receiving much international attention. But in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attack, and with France’s politicians seemingly idle, Le Pen is rising to prominence with her hard right-wing answers to preventing terrorism. Her latest move was to write an op-ed in the New York Times outlining her ideas.

She starts out with a line panning the French government for failing to call the terrorists “Islamist.”

It’s a line common to conservatives both in France and the U.S. As previously reported by the Inquisitr, Fox News similarly called out President Obama for avoiding the “I” word. The difference being Fox was mistaken, but Le Pen might not be.

As the far-right politician explains in her piece, “Mr. Fabius [France’s Foreign Minister] will not describe as ‘Islamists’ the terrorists who on Wednesday, January 7, walked into the offices of the newspaper Charlie Hebdo, right in the heart of Paris. Nor will he use ‘Islamic State’ to describe the radical Sunni group that now controls territory in Syria and Iraq.”

Instead, the French government uses the term “Daesh” to describe ISIL, which is just Arabic for “Islamic State.”

After semantics, Marine Le Pen got into the meat of her policy ideas, cutting off immigration and making sure no French citizen is a jihadist.

Her solution starts off with border checks.

The free flow of people and goods has been a staple of policy in the EU, one that many advocate as a major economic boon for the European states. But Le Pen sees it as a threat. She explains that “tons” of weapons flow in from the troubled Balkan peninsula and “hundreds of jihadists move freely around Europe.”

Of course, restricting the flow of goods and people is a huge step backwards for the E.U., one that the Union might not be able to recover from. Not that Marine Le Pen, a vocal E.U. critic, would likely care much.

According to the Hill, the Swiss are pulling their secondary support for the E.U. because of Le Pen and her National Front’s rising popularity.

They explain “the Swiss understand that if Le Pen comes to power in France, the EU will fall apart.”

Marine Le Pen’s second plank is restricting immigration. As she explained in her op-ed, the surge of immigrants from Middle East countries have prevented an effective assimilation policy, and that puts France’s values at risk.

“Without a policy restricting immigration, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to fight against communalism and the rise of ways of life at odds with laïcité, France’s distinctive form of secularism, and other laws and values of the French Republic.”

Le Pen finishes her proposals with foreign policy. Saying that France’s support for some fundamentalist groups in Syria, shaky alliances with Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and intervention in Libya has left foreign policy in “serious geopolitical incoherence.”

Naturally, leaving the EU, cutting off immigration, and reforming a national foreign policy takes time, but what about right now?

Marine Le Pen suggests one emergency measure that she thinks can be implemented immediately.

“For now, one emergency measure can readily be put into action: Stripping jihadists of their French citizenship is an absolute necessity.”

She adds, “there should be zero tolerance for any behavior that undermines laïcité and French law.”

Le Pen’s full op-ed can be read here.

[Image Credit: Emmanuel d’Aubignosc/Wikimedia Commons]