Nicolas Dupont-Aignan is the leader of a small Gaullist party in France. His party is not negligible — it received almost 5% of the vote in the first round of the presidential election. It represents one of the traditional platforms of the French Right: the political heirs of General Charles de Gaulle.

In the following report from French television, Mr. Dupont-Aignan announces that he and his party will support Marine Le Pen in the coming second round of the presidential election. This is a significant moment in Western European politics — as far as I know, it is the first instance in which the leader of a substantial establishment party has thrown his weight behind an anti-immigration party. In every other case — the AfD, Sverigedemokraterna, the PVV, the FPÖ, the Finns — the cordon sanitaire has held, and the other parties have absolutely refused to have anything to do with the “xenophobes”.

This may make for a more interesting French run-off than I thought we would see.

Many thanks to Ava Lon for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

00:00 During the presidential election we heard the declaration by Jean-Luc Mélenchon on his choice

00:04 for the second round. Another declaration today — the one from Nicolas Dupont-Aignan

00:08 candidate of Debout la France! [France Get Up!], who obtained, I remind you, 4.7%

00:12 of the vote in the first round. Today he revived his National Comity, and he’s our guest.

00:16 Good evening, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan. Thank you for being with us tonight. —Good evening,

00:19 Laurent de la Housse. —Can you confirm that you met Marine Le Pen last night? —Of course.

00:24 What did you talk about? Have you made your choice? Are you going to support her?

00:28 First of all, I would like to say that almost two million French people trust us

00:32 as Gaullists, humanists with a beautiful patriotic project

00:36 of making the nation great again. I could have, seriously,

00:40 done what many political personalities did:

00:44 wash my hands of the second round. It’s in my personal interest

00:48 to do what I’m doing; it’s in the interest of my party.

00:52 Incidentally, my party has never given voting instructions.

00:56 I think that France is at a crossroads.

01:00 I think that our country

01:04 is in bad shape; it survived five terrible years of François Hollande,

01:08 and I think that Emmanuel Macron

01:12 is Hollande to tenth power. Manufactured by financial interests,

01:16 by media interests, and all that is being done to impose him

01:20 as the leader of this country. —So, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan,

01:24 your choice will clearly be Marine Le Pen? —No, it doesn’t work like that. I thought a lot…

01:28 Besides, I saw the Republican leaders

01:32 who shocked people on the right — after having fought Monsieur Macron —

01:36 by making him their ally. All those who over the last thirty years failed in France

01:40 are with Monsieur Macron, and it’s understandable, because he wants to continue the same policies.

01:44 So before us we have Mme Le Pen — and I’m getting there: I saw her;

01:48 because I told myself that I had two options: either I would wash my hands

01:52 of the future of my country, and I have never done that in my political career.

01:56 I left the UMP after the 2005 referendum [when France said NO to the EU constitution] was trampled.

02:01 I have always made prominent the idea of France: mine, the one that I love;

02:05 and I said, I cannot call for voting for Madame Le Pen

02:09 without seeing her and without discussing with her a government project.

02:13 So you have had a governing agreement with Marine Le Pen?

02:17 And without seeing if Marine Le Pen wants

02:21 to extend her majority, to greet

02:25 in a true partnership, in an alliance — Gaullists and

02:29 Humanists, and cause her project to evolve. —So, excuse me Nicolas Dupont-Aignan. —And I insist,

02:33 it is very serious, Monsieur de la Housse… —I know it’s serious… —I am getting there.

02:37 we talked a lot this week. I took my time. I consulted twice

02:41 with my National Council. —Which hasn’t decided anything. —Oh, it did!

02:45 And which gave me a mandate to make this negotiation work.

02:49 And we signed a governing agreement. With an evolution

02:53 of her program, with some clarifications,

02:57 directions, and even updates of my presidential program. Because what is at stake

03:01 is not about turning towards Madame Le Pen;

03:05 what is at stake is saving France. —It means, what you are announcing tonight,

03:09 you wish the victory of Marine Le Pen —Tonight I’m officially announcing that

03:13 I will be supporting Marine Le Pen, that I will be campaigning

03:17 with her on an enlarged government project,

03:21 and I am also announcing, that we will — and I am telling this to the French people who

03:25 come to us especially from the right and who were betrayed by the leaders of the right —

03:29 that we have an opportunity to end an absurd fracture

03:33 between patriots and republicans. And I am insisting on one point,

03:37 Monsieur de la Housse, because it’s absolutely vital for the future of our country,

03:41 if we want to save it. It’s that this alliance is necessary.

03:45 My party, for example — Debout la France! — will carry on in the next legislative elections;

03:49 It will have its candidates everywhere. The French people will have a choice.

03:53 They won’t have a National Front candidate before of them? —No, it’s not true. —It’s a question;

03:57 there will be candidates from Debout la France! facing candidates from the National Front,

04:01 meaning that French people will retain the choice between two patriotisms,

04:05 Just as they had in the first round of the presidential election; but in the second round,

04:09 where there is a choice between continuing the policies of de-localisation,

04:14 of social regression, of the power of the banks,

04:18 of the power of an absurd Europe, which made us poor. With Mme Le Pen

04:22 I am offering, I think, a beautiful project for France —Your discussion with Mme Le Pen is based on

04:26 an electoral agreement, she will pay the expenses of your campaign… —Certainly not! —

04:30 It’s a question — Certainly NOT! It’s not about money. I am cautious. —Another question…

04:34 …cautious and thrifty! —Another question! —I insist! I am saying that

04:38 I will vote for Marine Le Pen and that I will support her! —Monsieur Dupont-Aignan, you have

04:42 a political past, you said it: Gaullist, Humanist.

04:46 Aren’t you betraying this past today?

04:50 Is Gaullism compatible with the right-wing extremism? In the eyes of the History the answer

04:54 is NO. —Madame Le Pen isn’t a right-wing extremist to me.

04:58 I’m telling you: I am a Gaullist, and General de Gaulle

05:02 saved France twice, meaning he gave her back her independence:

05:06 Against Germans, during the war, and he reformed, straightened out the country in 1958.

05:10 So tonight you are joining the extreme right wing. —I am not joining extreme right wing in any way.

05:14 I am a Gaullist; my political party will be allied

05:18 with Madame Le Pen, and I am convinced that

05:22 Madame Le Pen will, with my support and with the balanced alliance

05:26 With Gaullists and Humanists, and I think that many will

05:30 join us from the republican side, change French politics. —Are you seriously thinking

05:34 that for example, that General de Gaulle could utter this slogan: “France for the French”?

05:38 But General de Gaulle saved France and gave it back to the French!

05:42 And General de Gaulle saved

05:46 France, and would never do “basket politics”. Do you remember that saying?

05:50 For those who don’t know, “the basket” used to be the Paris stock exchange.

05:54 Well, I am not going to hand France to Paris Stock Exchange, in other words: to Monsieur Macron,

05:58 who is leading it against the French people, the working class,

06:02 the farmers ; and I tell you, this new alliance

06:06 offers a totally new horizon in French political life! —Thank you, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan,