At a time when France is stuck in a somewhat surreal impasse with its former colony of Niger, and Morocco – where there was a French protectorate – is not accepting help from Paris after the devastating earthquake in the Marrakesh region, a prominent French politician has found nothing better than weaving laurels in colonial times…
It is on the Rádio Sud antenna that Bruno Retailleau has just declared, on September 12th: “Colonization are, of course, hours that were dark, but they are also hours Who They were beautiful, with continuous hands. » The leader of the senatorial right denounces “the failure of Emmanuel Macron’s African policy”, citing the Moroccan example and making the connection with the coups in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, three countries where, according to him, “a form of anti – French hatred was expressed.” And he denounces the logic of “perpetual regret” which, according to him, “weakens” France.
Political instrumentalization
Retailleau's political stance is not surprising. Although the race for right-wing candidates has already begun, for the 2027 presidential elections, the politician who dreams of higher positions knows that Emmanuel Macron diverted external forces from his party Les Républicains (LR), thus inflating the notoriety of presidential candidates as Gérald Darmanin or Bruno Le Maire. To galvanize the right flank of his political party, on the border of the extreme right, the conservative senator must almost systematically oppose Macronist positions. However, in February 2017, on an Algerian television channel, Macron, then a candidate for the presidential elections, described colonization as a “crime against humanity”.
To make a difference with presidential candidates Éric Ciotti and Laurent Wauquiez who were not hunted by the “macronie” – or put himself at his service, if his personal window of opportunity closes – Bruno Retailleau must warm up the political line of the man who gave him the ideas of his Republican Force movement. This is former Prime Minister François Fillon who, precisely, praised the “positive role of the French presence abroad, particularly in North Africa”. For the former candidate who was predicted to win, in 2017, until “Penelopegate”, “France is not guilty of wanting to share its culture with the people of Africa”, and school education is not, it should not learn the “shame " from your country.
In turn, Bruno Retailleau uses African issues to make Franco-French politics. He accuses Macron of fueling “self-hatred” and of relying “too much on the African bourgeoisie of the diaspora […] against the leaders. Obviously taking himself for a voting institute, trying to appear “Afrophile” and pretending to ignore that we say what pleases the invited politicians, he states: “When I go to Africa […], they told me that they expect a France that does not repent, be strong and take responsibility. "Ah what Africa ?
