After the debates and deliberations at the Municipal Council, which adopted measures “to combat terrorism in the city of Nice,” Marie-Christine Arnautu and Marc-André Domergue, municipal councilors representing the National Front (FN), who abstained, wanted to explain their position through a statement.
The UMP deputy-mayor wanted to take advantage of the national unity climate following the tragic attacks our country suffered to present himself to this assembly as both a unifier and a defender of public safety.
However, the policies implemented from 2002 to 2012 by the UMP and Nicolas Sarkozy, of whom Christian Estrosi was a long-time minister, are directly responsible for the current situation in France:
under Sarkozy, according to the official figures from the Ministry of the Interior, France issued 203,000 residence permits in 2010, 78% more than in 2000 under Lionel Jospin;
contrary to their pronouncements, the staffing levels of the national police and gendarmerie were reduced by 19,000 officers;
regarding the army, the 2008 White Paper, under the government of Christian Estrosi’s friends, planned to cut 54,000 positions. The latest 2013 White Paper continues along the same lines by planning a further reduction of 24,000 personnel;
in 2003, Nicolas Sarkozy boasted of abolishing double jeopardy, thus allowing foreign criminals to remain on French territory, and in 2009, the Dati law allowed convicts sentenced to two years in prison to avoid imprisonment;
Nicolas Sarkozy allowed Qatar to invest 100 million euros in our suburbs, with an extremely favorable tax regime, seemingly ignoring that this country finances jihad worldwide;
by creating the French Council of the Muslim Faith, Christian Estrosi’s friends established official ties between the State and the Union of Islamic Organizations of France, the UOIF, an Islamist movement linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.
In Nice as well, Christian Estrosi does not hesitate to subsidize an association close to the UOIF, “Jeunes Musulmans de France” (Young Muslims of France).
As long as he does not acknowledge that the UMP is directly co-responsible for the current situation, all his rhetoric and media-calibrated measures will be pointless!
For all these reasons, today the National Front elected officials symbolically abstained and did not lend their support to the mayor’s publicity stunt, which he does not deserve at all.
