In certain French regions, the immigrants who settled there are harassing the indigenous population to the extent that it amounts to “ethnic cleansing,” said Gilles Platret, mayor of the central French town of Chalon-sur-Saône, on the news program of the popular CNews television channel.
“In certain neighborhoods — and I am going to use a strong word that will raise some eyebrows — I sense a certain ‘ethnic cleansing,’ meaning that you have people of foreign origin who are slowly hunting what demographic experts call the ‘natives,’ that is people who are from that county, to make place for themselves,” said Platret, who belongs to Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party.
“We see people of immigrant background in neighborhoods physically and verbally assaulting older people. They tell them that they ‘must clear out,'” said Platret.
His statement caused some rumblings in the studio, but Platret continued:
“The words (i.e. how you say it) do not matter. In more concrete terms, people not belonging to a Muslim group are being pushed out through violence, threats, and insults. They are being ejected from these neighborhoods and that is a reality.”
Unlike other Western European countries, the debate on immigration continues to grow, with poll after poll showing that a majority of the population is against accepting more immigrants. The country, which already has the largest share of Muslim immigrants in all of Europe, takes in an estimated 400,000 foreigners a year. A number of prominent French journalists, intellectuals and authors have discussed the topic of the “Great Replacement,” which they argue is taking place both in Europe and the United States, and involves mass migration displacing European peoples.
In French cities, many formerly French neighborhoods have entirely transformed into majority immigrant enclaves, many of them taking on their own culture — one that is often hostile towards both women and the French.
“I call that ethnic cleansing because of differences in the origins of population groups and the fact that certain groups are chasing out others,” Platret said. “The Great Replacement is supposed to mean that for 50 years there has been a political project to replace the (French) population. I do not share that point of view, because it was not France which decided to replace its own population.”
