France’s Valerie Pecresse later said she had only used anti-immigration rhetoric to show voters “another path is possible”
Conservative French presidential candidate Valerie Pecresse has come under fire for using language linked to the far right and making references to border walls and the ‘Great Replacement’ conspiracy theory at her first major campaign rally on Sunday.
Addressing thousands of supporters at the Paris event, Pecresse – nominated by the center-right Republicans party – questioned whether France would “still be a sovereign nation”Or would be a “US satellite or a Chinese trading post”It would be great if President Emmanuel Macron stayed on for another ten-year.
“In ten years, will we still be the seventh power in the world? … Will we be a united nation or a fragmented nation? Faced with these vital questions, neither the great downgrading, nor the Great Replacement, are inevitable,”Multimedia outlets reported Pecresse saying it.
According to Politico, it marked the first time that Pecresse has publicly referred to the far-right doctrine that white French Christians are being supplanted by Muslim immigrants at the direction of the country’s elites.
Eric Zemmour, far-right presidential candidate, has supported the theory in the past. This belief was influenced by Brenton Tarrant, Christchurch mosque shooter. Pecresse, a right-wing candidate, is fighting Marine Le Pen (Zemmour) in an effort to win a seat in the runoff against Macron.
Pecresse, reportedly in her speech, also referenced “overflowing”The creation of immigration “zones of non-France,”Border Supported and Built “barriers” “walls”Requested by European countries which are “on the front line in the face of migratory blackmail.”
Anne Hidalgo, socialist candidate for the presidency of Spain, accused her of making racist remarks. “[crossing] yet another Rubicon.” Meanwhile, Francois Patriat, a senator for Macron’s party, tweetedThe comments are marked as a “great disenchantment”For the “republican right.”
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Pecresse was criticised for the language she used, but she appeared to backtrack on Monday. Pecresse told RTL that she did not mean it. “resign myself to Zemmour’s theories and extreme-right theories, because I know another path is possible.”
“It’s something I’ve been saying for months, so I don’t even understand this uproar,”Pecresse said that while acknowledging the importance of immigration, Pecresse also stated this. “non-France”There are many areas within the country.
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