Bruno Retailleau has only been in his job for a month but already France’s new Minister of the Interior has become the bête noire of the progressive Left. Why do they hate the 63-year-old former senate leader of the centre-right Republicans – where to start?!
As a practising Catholic, Retailleau represents "Old France", the France that the progressive Left despises. Jean-Luc Melenchon, the leader of the far-left La France Insoumise party, has bragged about using mass immigration to build a "new France" (whether the new arrivals will ever share the Left’s views on LGBT rights remains to be seen).
Days after his appointment as Interior Minister, Retailleau appeared on primetime French television. The hysteria was palpable.
Instead of being asked about the country’s immigration and insecurity crises – both out of control –Retailleau was interrogated about his opposition to the gay marriage and adoption bill, which was passed into law a decade ago.
"I have convictions," explained Bruno Retailleau, surprised and irritated at the question. "We're replaying the battle of the past, forgetting the urgencies of the present. We've got a financial crisis on our doorstep, we've got disorder on the streets, disorder in our accounts, disorder on our borders too, and we're talking about something that doesn't exist...Where did you hear that Bruno Retailleau would like to revisit this bill?"
It was a trenchant riposte to the virtue-signalling journalist. Retailleau has never made any secret of his opposition to the gay marriage and adoption bill – which a decade ago brought 150,000 people onto the streets in opposition to the Socialist government’s act – nor is he ashamed of his position on the assisted dying/suicide bill that Emmanuel Macron supports.
The bill has been put on hold since the president dissolved parliament in June, ushering in a period of political chaos that led finally last month to the nomination of Michel Barnier as Prime Minister. Barnier, who like Retailleau, hails from the Republican party, has said the assisted dying/suicide bill will be debated in parliament in the near future.
Guided by his faith, Retailleau is a staunch opponent of the bill, declaring in an interview earlier this year: "Such a text, if adopted, would lead the most vulnerable to ask themselves this unbearable question: am I a burden on those around me, on society? It would be the expression of individualism pushed to its extreme limit, where ultimate bonds are abolished."
If the Left who espouse a "New France" loathe Retailleau then the animosity is mutual. He is a defender of "Old France", what in a recent interview he defined as Judeo-Christian. "The French melting pot was created in Jerusalem, Athens and Rome," he said. "It's a unique civilisation, which is also European, and the worst thing for me is to see this European bad conscience [that has emerged] when Europe is the symbol of freedom."
Retailleau has outlined a series of measures to tackle France’s chaotic immigration policy and its burgeoning lawlessness, the two being inextricably linked. Last month a 19-year-old Catholic student, Philippine, was murdered by a Moroccan man who should have been deported having recently served a sentence for rape.
The case outraged France, and for Retailleau (who made a private visit to the family of Philippine) it brought back painful memories.
In 2021 a friend, Father Olivier Maire, was murdered by a Rwandan who had been living illegally in France since 2012. Olivier Maire was the provincial superior of the Montfort Missionaries in the Vendee, in western France. For many years had given shelter to the poor and the dispossessed, among them the Rwandan.
In 2020 the man had tried to burn down Nantes cathedral and yet he was released after just ten months, which was when he given sanctuary by Father Maire. In the immediate aftermath of the murder, Retailleau gave his reaction, first as a friend: "I was personally very touched by this barbaric act," he said. "I was a student at Saint-Gabriel, one of the three branches of Montfortian and Marian spirituality. I know what I owe to this establishment. He was a man of great kindness, faith and culture. His homilies were profound, full of biblical and literary references."
Then, speaking as a politician, Retailleau expressed his outrage that the Rwandan had been at liberty, despite his attempt to burn down Nantes cathedral and despite the fact he had been served with a deportation order on three occasions. "For some magistrates – not all – the migrant has replaced the proletarian," said Retailleau. "He has become the redeeming figure who must be protected at all costs."
Retailleau is under no illusions about the size of his task. While the majority of the public want an end to out-of-control immigration, the Paris elite – political, judicial and cultural – are very much in favour of free movement. As for the soaring crime, the elite live in the upmarket neighbourhoods rarely troubled by gangsters, drug dealers and Islamic extremists.
Retailleau’s political opponents accuse him of "racism" and differing little from Marine Le Pen’s nationalist party, the National Rally. Retailleau rejects the charges, saying that "my compass is the French people". It is also his Catholic Faith.
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<em>Photo: French Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau addresses deputies during a session of questions to the government at the National Assembly, French Parliament lower house, Paris, France, 15 October 2024. (Photo by ALAIN JOCARD/AFP via Getty Images.)</em>
