Look at Marine Le Pen’s stunned face during this exchange. Hilarious footage has made its way over the channel of a debate between Marine Le Pen and Macron’s Minister for the Interior Gérald Darmanin, who went on the attack accusing Le Pen of being “a little soft… not hard enough” on the issue of Islam in France. Clearly stunned by the claim, Le Pen, correctly in Guido’s view, ended up defending Islam as “a religion like any other”. See Guido’s translation of the exchange below:
Gerald Darmanin: In her attempts to rehabilitate [her party], Mrs. Le Pen has gone a bit soft. I find you… you need to take some vitamins, you’re not tough enough here. If you compare your line to what Mrs. Marechal Le Pen [Le Pen’s more openly hardline niece] and Mr. Collard [RN MEP] are saying, there’s a huge difference. If I understand you right, you’re prepared to not even legislate on religion, and you say that Islam is not even a problem. You’ve gone quite far, it’s going to disappoint quite a lot of your voters I imagine.
Presenter: I have to admit I’ve not heard the same thing this evening, Mr. Darmanin.
Darmanin: On the contrary, Mrs. Le Pen says it’s not a problem with Islam, it’s a problem with ideology. The Salafists, the Muslim Brotherhood… (they talk over each other)
Marine Le Pen: Yes I can confirm that I don’t intend to attack Islam, which is a religion like any other. And, because I am strongly attached to our French values, I want to conserve total freedom of religion. That’s my opinion.
