The Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, denounced, Monday, May 10, a "gross political machination" after the publication of a new forum of soldiers, active but anonymous, evoking the risk of a "civil war" in France.
"It is a gross political plot first because this morning, a simple reader who read this forum (on current values) was counted as a signatory, anonymous naturally," said Florence Parly on BFMTV.
"And then you will certainly have noticed that this forum uses all the rhetoric, the vocabulary, the tone, the references which are those of the extreme right," she added.
"So for what purpose? Certainly the purpose of dividing, of fracturing our nation at a time when it more than ever needs to come together, to meet again," continued the minister.
"We have just passed a very difficult health crisis. Nothing is worse than wanting to damage the values of the Republic."
This text appears less than three weeks after the controversial publication of a first forum of soldiers, a majority of whom are retired and some of whose signatories are threatened with sanctions, denouncing the "disintegration" of France and saying they are ready to "support the military. policies "who will fight it.
This time, those who present themselves as soldiers "recently entered into a career" and some of whom have "known enemy fire" in Mali, Afghanistan or the Central African Republic, make no appeal to politicians but also denounce what they are doing. perceive as "the simmering civil war".
"What is damaging our Republic is also to attack our armies, their neutrality," said Florence Parly.
"The neutrality of our armies is what makes the French have confidence in their soldiers (..), it is an element of national cohesion."
"Apolitism is our credibility"
The two forums, quite close to the argument developed by the National Rally (RN), were received coldly within the general staff of the armed forces.
"A firm reminder will be made by the command on the respect of the duty of reserve" because "the apoliticalism makes our credibility and the cohesion is what makes our strength", declared Monday to AFP a high official of the state -major.
"The armies are apolitical and absolutely loyal to the elected president (...). If you have moods, you have to leave the army in conscience."
For the Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin and the majority, there is no doubt: it is a "crude maneuver" in the run-up to regional and presidential elections.
The authors are accused of "playing politics".
"Who has an interest in weakening the military institution and mixing the military and the political? The RN," said Françoise Dumas, LREM deputy and president of the defense and armed forces committee at the National Assembly.
For her part, the head of the RN and candidate for the Elysee, Marine Le Pen, believes that there is indeed a "risk of civil war" which "smolders" in the country, she said, using the same terms as the second platform, and inviting its signatories to join it, as for the first platform.
📹 “The military platform in @Valeurs was a cry of alarm.
I have a lot of respect for our army, but above all I have great confidence in it.
»#EnTouteFranchise @LCI pic.twitter.com/rumL7kv7N5
- Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) May 9, 2021
Call to ensure the "survival of the country"
The new text denounces in particular "the chaos and the violence" which would strike the country, the signatories calling on the President of the Republic, the ministers, parliamentarians and general officers to ensure the "survival of the country".
"If a civil war breaks out, the army will maintain order on its own soil, because we will ask it," insist the author (s) of this forum, which had collected around 5 pm more than 163,000 signatures.
After the publication of the first forum on April 21, the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, denounced an initiative "contrary to all our republican principles" and accused the RN, which had called on the signatories to support its action, of "political recovery" .
But part of the right on Monday renewed its support for the new forum, whose diagnosis is deemed "perfectly accurate" and "fed by experience on the ground", according to LR MEP François-Xavier Bellamy.
This is "a serious alarm signal", estimated the LR deputy of Vaucluse Julien Aubert, specifying that "instead of seeking to sanction, the government must hold a speech of lucidity on the state from the country".
On the left, the former socialist president François Hollande questioned the "deontology" of the platform.
"How can we suggest that the army today would be animated by such feelings and by a desire to question the very principles of the Republic?"
. @ fhollande, on the #tribune de #militaires published in @Valeurs: "It's worrying (...) a petition without signatures. What is the code of ethics? We shouldn't even give it credit: when it doesn't there are no signatures, there is no text "# le79inter pic.twitter.com/RbGWz4O0Xo
- France Inter (@franceinter) May 10, 2021
As for the candidate of La France insoumise (LFI) Jean-Luc Mélenchon, these "active soldiers who want to sign a forum anonymously" are "factious and cowardly".
He promised, if elected in 2022, to "purge the army of its factious members".
With AFP
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