The Response to Le Pen's Response

The following is a response, written I would guess by Jean-Pierre Fabre-Bernadac, to Marine Le Pen’s response (in English here) to the “Generals’ letter” (in English here). As blatant as Le Pen’s electoral preoccupation was in her letter, this response may seem harsh. But the redactors and signatories of the initial letter are clearly eager that their project not become too closely associated in the public mind with any particular political force.

We were surprised to read Marine Le Pen’s open letter in Valeurs actuelles, a letter written following the article “‘Pour un retour de l’honneur de nos gouvernants’: 20 généraux appellent Macron à défendre le patriotisme.” It seemed important to us to make a clarification and two remarks in reference to the words of the President of the Rassemblement National.

Marine Le Pen's Response to the "Generals' Letter"

Marine Le Pen’s response to “the Generals’ letter,” Valeurs actuelles (23 April). English translation of the initial letter available here. The republication of the letter in V.A. on 21 April seems to have been largely responsible for the scandal: it had been up on Place d’armes for a week by then, but to less effect. “The Generals” were to respond to Le Pen on 24 April.

Representatives of every army and every specialism, you have signed an open letter, “For a Return to Honour for Our Leaders.”

Your initiative, rare in the military machine, testifies to the degree of disquiet that you feel faced with the worrying deterioration of our country’s situation. The observations that you present, uncompromising but fair, and the strength of the terms you use amount to a public intervention that, given your status as signatories, nobody can ignore.

The "Generals' Letter"

The “Tribune des Militaires” has got a little attention in the English-language press. The papers began to cover it a little on Monday and Tuesday; but Philippe-Emmanuel Gobry did as much as anyone else to get the word out. The following open letter was drafted by Captain Jean-Pierre Fabre-Bernadac, officer (retired) of both the Territorial Army and the Gendarmerie, and has been signed by over twenty generals and over a thousand soldiers of every rank. It was first published on a site called Place d’armes (14 April), and seemed to receive relatively little attention. Then Valeurs actuelles republished it (21 April); Marine Le Pen responded to it (23 April; I will translate and post her response presently); and then people, including the Minister for the Armed Forces, took note.