François Asselineau
Statement
General principles
François Asselineau is a senior civil servant and Conservative politician. He is standing for election as president of the French Republic as leader of his own movement, the Popular Republican Union (Union Populaire Républicaine or UPR). Described as a sovereigntist, he argues for the withdrawal of France from the European Union, the Eurozone and NATO. He introduces his movement as an “honourable and loyal movement which wants to give France its independence and democracy back.”
His “programme of liberation” is the same platform he ran on in the 2012 presidential election. Commenting on this, he states that “this is proof that events keep corroborating our analyses and propositions. This is proof that our programme is the only fair one for France.”
Asselineau says, “We want an independent foreign policy, in other words the foreign policy we had in the time of de Gaulle, the so-called erga omnes policy, in other words we want to assert our national independence but we do not, by any means, want to belong to the European Union which is leading us towards war, towards a clash of civilisations.”
Europe
Asselineau wants France to trigger Article 50 and withdraw from the European Union, which he claims is ‘swindling’ France. He says that the European Union is incapable of changing or being changed, and that a Frexit is the only way for France to regain its independence and sovereignty.
“There cannot be democracy within the European Union because there is no European demos [people]. Because of the different visions of the world, different languages and divergent geopolitical and economic interests [of member states], the only way to achieve common policies among the 28 member states is to have a structure that dictates what they must do: and that’s called dictatorship.”
“Leaving the European Union is about leaving a dictatorship, leaving this prison of nations and getting our democracy back.”
NATO
Asselineau believes that France is subservient to the United States, especially via its membership of NATO. He is calling for France to leave NATO.
He says, “The Euro-Atlanticist mafia is prepared to do anything.”
United States of America
Asselineau accuses the U.S of having created Al-Qaeda and Daesh. “Al-Qaeda was an American creation decided on by the Reagan Administration. This is a well-known fact which has been explicitly confirmed by Hillary Clinton herself. … Donald Trump has publicly stated that IS, the Islamic State, aka Daesh, aka ISIS, was created by Obama and Hillary Clinton. He has clearly stated that ‘Obama and Clinton created IS’ and that ‘Hillary should be in prison’.”
Asselineau’s attitude has been anti-American in the past, but there has been a change in his rhetoric towards the United States since the election of Donald J. Trump.
“If Donald Trump doesn’t want the United States to rule the planet any more, we’re hardly going to complain, at least I won’t. … For a movement like ours, for the ideas and the programme I stand for, it’s miraculous how things are starting to take off. I mean, if we get into power, we’ll have a power in Washington, on the other side of the Atlantic, that has never been more favourable to the ideas I have been developing for decades. Mr. Trump supported Brexit, so he can’t be against Frexit. Mr. Trump is against TAFTA, and that’s a piece of luck because so are we. Mr. Trump says NATO is obsolete, and that’s a piece of luck because so do we. Mr. Trump talks to Vladimir Putin, wants to reduce tensions there, that’s great. We can only feel pleased about all of this.”
Middle East
Asselineau states: “I am completely opposed to an intervention in Syria, I am completely opposed to intervention in Iraq.”
“The Popular Republican Union believes it is useful to restate that the illegal war fought in Iraq, Afghanistan and in Pakistan by the United States and most of our so-called “partners” in the European Union – using the cover of a “war on terrorism” when it was primarily about serving oil interests – led to the death of at least 1.3 million civilians, in other words 15,476 times more deaths than during the Nice attack.
“The PRU reiterates that all these crimes, just like those committed in Libya, in Syria or elsewhere, are punishable by the International Criminal Court, and our movement is pleased to see that a growing number of British citizens want their former Prime Minister Anthony Blair to be brought before this international jurisdiction.”
