Unfortunately, the generations after de Gaulle have been brainwashed by American movies, think tanks, and NGOs. Most of today’s French elite are Atlanticists; they believe that France can only be safe and prosperous under the guidance of the benevolent and altruistic Uncle Sam… This is the complete antithesis of what de Gaulle crafted for France some 60 years ago. Now, France follows U.S. policy like a puppy follows its master: Russia, China, Venezuela, Israel/Palestine… Whatever comes out of the White House instantly becomes French policy,” says Nikola Mirković, geopolitical analyst, Franco-Serbian writer, and president of the French NGO Ouest-Est (West-East), in an interview with our portal. Our interlocutor is also the author of the books “Ukrainian Chaos,” “American Empire,” “Welcome to Kosovo,” and “Kosovo Martyr,” a regular guest on French and international media, and a person whose NGO, among other activities, organized humanitarian aid for Donbas. We spoke with Nikola Mirković about whether Emmanuel Macron’s France is experiencing a totalitarian nightmare and the challenges faced by a country that, led by an Atlanticist elite, has renounced its sovereignty.
Before Revolution French kings were called the most Christian – très chrétien – and even during the Napoleon III (emperor 1852-1870) was considered the most Roman Catholic country, the protector of the Papacy and of the christians in Ottoman Empire. Opening and closing of the Olympics in Paris depict antichristian values and even are considered as the mocking of the Christ. What is the religious picture of contemporary France?
France is one of the oldest nations in Europe. Its birth is directly related to the christening of Clovis the first King of the Francs in the year 496. France is hence one of the oldest Christian nations and has always been a staunch defender of Christianity. France has even been given the name of the “eldest daughter of the Church” and had indeed a special role in defending ostracized Christian communities in foreign lands. Catholicism has been to a big extent consubstantial to the history of France. Think of some of France’s most renown historical figures like Charlemagne, Louis the IXth (Saint Louis) , Joan of Arc, Blaise Pascal, Paul Claudel, Saint Vincent de Paul, Saint Theresa of Lisieux, Charles de Gaulle, François Mauriac… all were known for their catholic faith. Since the French revolution however and especially since the demonstrations of May 1968, France has slowly but surely been cut off from its Christian roots. Under the guise of constructing a secular state, the French elite, whether from the left or the right, have been constructing an anti-christian state. They have been helped indirectly by the bishops of the catholic church in France which gave in to the aggiornamento of the Council of Vatican II. They thought that by being more progressive and closer to the protestant theology they would strengthen the church and gather new members. Exactly the opposite happened. Successively, since the 1960s Catholicism has been evacuated from the French society and what was unimaginable two generations ago is today mainstream. The whole work of cancel culture and wokism has taken its toll on the main pillar of French society. Today it is more common to say “happy holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas”. “Easter holidays” have become “Spring holidays”. The young generation in France would have difficulties distinguishing a nun from a Muslim woman in a hijab, they no longer have the knowledge of the Bible, they don’t know the teaching of the Church nor the cultural dimension of the catholic faith. They don’t know God.
After World War II around 90% of the French considered themselves as Catholics, today the estimates are around 40 to 50% with roughly 5 to 10% practicing regularly.
It’s a dark age for Christians in France and the anti-Catholic elite feel that they have already won the battle. Christianity is ridiculed on TV, Christ’s Last Supper is blasphemed during the Olympics, and churches are vandalized and desecrated. France’s Minister of Interior admits that a little over two churches are desecrated each day in France. France has become an agnostic country with a strong anti-Catholic elite and a growing Muslim community which is expanding quickly.
Despite this ominous picture of religious landscape there is of course the light of hope. Many in the Catholic community have now understood what is going on, they are less confident in politicians who keep on betraying them. They are taking initiatives to develop their own schools and media and they are more politicized than before. We are not yet talking about the last of the Mohicans but there remains a strong community of several million Catholics who know that if they don’t react urgently the catholic faith could be lost in France for some time. Last year, for the first time in a long time the number of baptisms was up 30% in France. People are starting to go back to church or are discovering the catholic faith and the Christian heritage. The younger more dynamic communities are reaping the benefit of this renewed quest for God. The traditionalist movement (which doesn’t celebrate the modern mass and whose liturgy, albeit different, is in essence akin to the byzantine liturgy) is growing strong and attracts a lot of very young French. The traditionalists are also receiving a lot of vocations and some say that within the next generation up to half of the French priests could be coming from these communities which have a much more “orthodox” approach to the catholic faith and refuse modernism and the aggiornamento spirit. Last June 20 000 young catholics walked in a three day tradtionnalist pilgrimage from Paris to Chartres. This is three times as much as 20 years ago. To sum it up the situation is quite difficult for Christians but they are getting organized and ready to fight back. They haven’t said their last word yet.
Beside Christian heritage, France is famous for its artists and museums. In that sense it seems as a strange message, the fact that the famous operas of art were presented as semi drown in the river Senne? Is it related to the standpoint of Macron who once said “Il n’y a pas de culture Française, Il n’y a pas une culture française, il y a une culture en France et elle est diverse.”?
Emmanuel Macron has a split personality. On one hand he will boast that he has received a catholic upbringing but on the other he will pursue an anticatholic and an anti-French agenda. It shocked many French people when he said that there was no French culture or that the history of France had to be “deconstructed.” Emmanuel Macron is a “Young Leader” of the French American Foundation, he epitomizes the current neoliberal, neoconservative, pro-atlanticist French elite. He dreams of New York and San Francisco not Calais or Bordeaux. He used to be an investment banker working for the Rothschilds and has been catapulted into politics by his globalist mentors. Macron is in favor of deconstructing and erasing the history of France and its religion. He is very much in favor of all the new social engineering coming out of American campuses which is seeking to redefine what is a man, a woman, a family and society. He believes US is the guarantor of a certain world order and so the world needs a strong America. Actually, he is the reverse image of General Charles de Gaulle who fought for France’s liberty and took great risks so that France would get rid of the nazis without becoming an American lapdog. What has happened to Christianity in France has of course spilled over the cultural scene. This is normal, if you rid France’s culture of all its Christian heritage you don’t have much left. The modernists tried to fill the gap by provocations, uncomprehensible and disgraceful art and the result is what you saw during the Olympics’ overture. Believe me there’s even worse is French museums, French TV and in French schools. This is the program of the globalists who want to deconstruct traditional societies and replace them by an Atlanticist, individualistic society with no traditions, no spiritual heritage, nothing between the individual and the cold hand of the state and the overextending tentacles of multinational corporations. It’s not just a French phenomenon. Look all around the Western world, we’re all being contaminated by an epidemic of social reengineering and torching of our identities. This is unheard of in the West. It’s tantamount to a cultural suicide. The UK is much worse off than the French but France remains on a slippery downhill slide. European countries which are trying to resist like Hungary, Slovakia or Serbia are getting battered by the globalists who want to rein them in. It is not possible to bring forward the fantasy of the modern man if he still has deep roots linking him to his past and enabling him to adapt to the present and prepare the future. Globalists want to strip the roots for the advent of the transhuman Man, driven by technology and the cult of progressivism and scientism. There is no room for culture, heritage and God in their world. They want to rewrite history from a blank piece of paper.
After the Second World War famous general and statesman Charles de Gaulle saved the French grandeur in international relations and together with other statesmen inaugurated guided or economy led by a government. Similar economic conduct was led in Italy until the 1980s. How do you describe contemporary economic policy and its results for France?
De Gaulle was France’s last great politician. He had a sense of dedication; he was able to plan and he wasn’t afraid to take decisions. Above all he loved France, he loved the French, and his sole preoccupation was the wellbeing of his country and his people. De Gaulle’s successor, George Pompidou, was a Rothschild banker. Everything went downhill from there. Both left and right implemented very progressive agendas and pushed France into the supranational grip of the European Union where it is ceasing to be a nation and becoming more and more a province. Let us not forget that for Zbigniew Brzezinski in The Great chessboard, Western Europe is globally and American protectorate. By foregoing its duties as a sovereign state France is on a terrible decline. France has the world’s second maritime surface but needs to import fish. France used to be a technological stronghold developing its own nuclear energy, the TGV fast train, the Concorde… France developed its own computers and had one of the worlds most advanced network of diplomats and intelligence. Now France depends on high tech coming out of the USA or Asia. It has a national debt over 110% of its GDP and it’s budget is constantly showing a deficit. Unemployment rate remains high especially for the younger generations, economic growth is sluggish, taxes are amongst the highest in Europe and despite that the public service is falling apart. France which used to be a great trade exporter now runs a huge trade deficit. And to top off all of that there are officially over 9 million poor in France. The Atlanticist elite have ruined the country and enslaved it to debt. French universities no longer prepare the engineers, philosophers, doctors and scientists needed to cope with the challenges of the XXIst century. The globalist dream has turned to a nightmare for the French and it should come to no surprise that civil unrest is quite high as has been seen worldwide during the yellow vests demonstrations or other protests which have turned violent. The Germans say Glücklish wie Gott in Franckreich to express someone’s happiness, but this is no longer true. France has become a powder keg.
During the De Gaulle presidency France pulled out of NATO command, and the NATO central was transferred to Brussels. France had a policy that was differing from the US toward Moscow or the Middle East. What has changed?
French journalists and political pundit of the beginning of the XXth century, Charles Maurras, foresaw the direction the world was heading towards. He understood already at that time the dominance of America, the demographic surge of Africa, the burgeoning power of Asia. Ha saw also that the world would be imbalanced with certain superpowers over hundreds of millions of people and smaller nations like France. He said that France should be the head of the smaller nations against the empires. This is the role he saw for France, and I believe he is right on this specific point. The vocation of France is not to be an American protectorate or a European puppet. France has the legitimacy of a great nation because of its history, its culture, its worldwide span and because it has the atom bomb. However, France cannot compete with countries with over 1 billion people like China or India. It can’t compete against the Russian and American giants either. France’s position, as desired by de Gaulle, is to be an independent and sovereign country able to speak to all countries whether they are superpowers or lesser powers. As a smaller country with a long history and the strength of over 300 million French speakers worldwide France has the legitimacy to be a world power and to be the spearhead of non-aligned countries which don’t want to fall in the hands of any empire whatever they may be. Also, France had a very strong diplomatic tradition. France has sacrificed its diplomatic legacy on the altar of American hegemonism. The French used to have relays across the world with every political, cultural or religious movement. This enabled France to build its own diplomacy and make its own decisions and defend its interests on the international chessboard.
Are there any differences on the political scene regarding the war in Eastern Europe – Ukraine?
Yes France is quite divided on the subject even though there probably is a silent majority in favor of Zelensky. This majority is however thinning out as the war goes on. To put it in a nutshell French sovereignists and leftists are against NATO, against the war or in favor of Russia, the center is globally behind Zelensky and NATO. At the beginning of the Russian invasion in 2022 (8 years after the Ukrainian civil war started in 2014) it was difficult in France to voice an alternative point of view to that of Emmanuel Macron and mainstream media. Two years down the road more and more people do not believe the official narrative and the Hollywood scenario of the evil Russian against the fun-loving innocent Ukrainian. Social networks and Internet have helped a lot in spreading alternative information and different standpoints on what is really going on in Ukraine and its impact on global geopolitics. It also helped understand France’s official position. This is most certainly one of the reasons why Macron is going after Telegram. The fight to quell free speech is strong in France as in Western Europe. The fact that more and more people go to Telegram channels or independent internet websites for more information is damaging the control French oligarchs and the French State have over mainstream media. During the 1999 illegal bombing of Serbia, internet was but an embryo. People didn’t rush to the web to get unconventional and objective information. That’s how the West got away with a flagrant crime against humanity. Nowadays it’s much more difficult to control the narrative when social platforms give out information bluntly before mainstream media even have time to get their hands on it, filter it and rewrite it.
Today more and more French don’t understand why France is spending billions of taxpayers’ money to feed Zelensky’s corrupt regime and pursue a war where thousands of young Europeans are dying. More and more people want peace and a return to stability. This is a thorn in the government’s side.
Do supporters of Melenchon still trust him after the parliamentary elections in which he made temporary alliance with Macron?
Melenchon is a previous socialist senator, he’s sly like a fox and he knows all the tricks of the political trade. His base has forgiven him getting in bed with Macron and he still is their leader. He is a very articulate and educated man. He has a strong fan base but he is also provocative and hot-headed which makes his opponents base just as strong. Melenchon knows Macron and they probably have some sort of deal. So far however this deal has not given Melenchon’s political party “France unbowed” access to the seat of Prime Minister. Although the leftist coalition around “France unbowed” came second in the legislative elections to Marine Lepen’s National Rally, Melenchon’s coalition, The New Popular Front gained the most seats (this is due to the way the electoral cutout actually stands in France) and they are expecting to take over the government. Macron has not chosen his government for over two months which shows how unstable and chaotic the French political scene actually is. Melenchon is actually more low-profile for the current discussions letting his right arms do the negotiations, but it seems as if Macron doesn’t want to give his movement a post of the Prime minister.
Russian Pavel Durov, French citizen and a founder of Vkontakte social media and of Telegram is arrested in Paris, facing serious charges. Is this a political arrest and what may be the consequences?
It is 100% a political arrest. The Western society has based a lot of its politics on lies and propaganda (Bay of Tonkin incident, weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, genocide in Kosovo and Srebrenica…). During those periods it was extremely difficult to debunk governmental and media fake news. It’s even now a difficult task because the majority of people are still convinced that Western governments don’t lie and that the TV tells the truth but in piecemeal fashion Western governments and their corporate allies no longer completely control the information outlets. Today with the rise of social networks it’s much more easier to have access to objective information. This is why Pavel Durov was arrested. According to a 2021 study carried out by the Canadian Centre for Child protection, half of the world’s pedo-pornographic images were stored on the servers of French internet giant Free. Free belongs to Xavier Niel who also owns French daily Le Monde and is a strong supporter of … Emmanuel Macron. If Macron was really concerned about child protection, he would have stared by arresting Mr Niel. So no, the talented Mister Macron isn’t interested in fighting against child pornography, he wants to control information, smash alternative news sources and wants a backdoor to Telegram to spy on French citizens. Actually, I’m not quite sure this is Macron’s initiative, and it is possible that he is just the henchman working for the White House. Time will tell. The consequences of this arrest are impressive. People are extremely shocked in France and in the rest of the world. This is no longer a conspiracy theory; people see for themselves that Western governments really do arrest whistle blowers like Julian Assange or Liberty lovers like Pavel Durov. We’re being told day in day out that we are “democracies” and that the pillars of our enlightened societies are free speech and human rights, but the truth is that the West is dangerously sliding off the map of democracies and already has one foot steadily entrenched in the construction of a totalitarian system. We will see the outcome in the following weeks, but I hope that Mr. Durov will remain firm and will not bow to the intimidation of atlanticist autocrats.
What is your role in French politics and society?
I’m the President of a French NGO called Ouest-Est (West-East). Our purpose is to build and strengthen ties between Western and Eastern Europe. We Europeans, are generally all of the same Hellenic-Christian civilization and share same values, culture and traditions. Each European people is specific and unique but to burst the globalist overstretch we think that what the European nations have in common should be the bulwark to defend ourselves from cancel culture, social reengineering and corporate and state control. We’re not a political party, we just want the European nations form the West and the East to get to know each other better and to value their traditions and cultures instead of trying to mingle in some sort of globalist melting pot. We advocate dialog and participate in a lot of debates on sovereignty, Europe, NATO and how to bring peace back to our continent. Seeing Christians fight against each other in the Balkans or in Ukraine is a shame. Letting foreign nations come between us and encouraging us to fight against each other is a crime. With the surge in African demographics, the rise of economic Asia we Europeans should understand that we have a civilizational imperative to get to work better together and get along better. Not as the European Union is doing in an anti-democratic authoritarian way but in an intelligent manner benefitting all European nations based on the respect of subsidiarity, sovereignty and the love and defense of our traditional Hellenic-Christian values. This does not mean that Europe should enter any kind of clash of civilizations but that it must better defend its own civilization in a world where big powerful mastodonts will eat isolated nations like cats eat mice for breakfast. To get this message through we participate in debates and conferences, we promote cultural activities which highlight the cultural specificities and richness of the people of Europe and we also organize humanitarian missions. We’ve organized several humanitarian missions in Donbass but we have also helped Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija and will soon be starting a new humanitarian mission in Poland. We want to walk the talk and not just muster ideas. We believe that we can get out of this mess if we do what we preach and that we transform ideas into action. As Goethe said: “Whatever you do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”
