The LFI’s advocacy for the Great Replacement ideology has triggered criticism, particularly after far-left members expressed satisfaction over the declining population of indigenous white French citizens in favor of immigrant groups.
In a parliamentary debate this week regarding a bill addressing fraudulent and arranged marriages, Clemence Guette, from the radical left-wing party La France Insoumise (LFI), contended that attempts to uphold France’s national identity have been unsuccessful.
“You have lost the battle of racist ideology. Today, one in three French people is already connected to immigration,” she remarked, celebrating what she sees as a victory, as reported.
The deputy criticized Marine Le Pen’s National Rally and Eric Ciotti’s conservative Union of the Right Republic (UDR) for protecting “so-called native French” by framing them as “white French.”
Guette further claimed that the anti-fraud measure is merely designed to “throw up obstacles” for immigrants who aspire to “build a life in our country, get married, and start families,” thereby participating fully in “today’s citizenship.”
This rhetoric aligns with the growing movement within La France Insoumise to embrace notions of a “new France” and the “Great Replacement,” a concept originally articulated by philosopher Renaud Camus, which suggests that Western elites view their populace as interchangeable with cheaper foreign replacements.
LFI leader and presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon aims to strengthen ties with immigrant groups, particularly France’s Muslim population, rather than engaging with “boring” white residents.
Mélenchon navigates a complex narrative. He champions a multicultural vision of “new France” while cautiously referencing the term “Great Replacement” in his campaign, asserting that it does not equate to ethnic cleansing—rather, it describes a natural generational shift.
Statistics recently published by the National Institute for Population Studies (INED) in Paris indicated that one in three individuals has immigrant ties, including Mélenchon, a Moroccan-born Spanish/Sicilian immigrant. His remarks asserting that “France is our homeland” seem like an effort to co-opt nationalist sentiments.
The INED’s survey of 27,000 respondents revealed that approximately 13 percent of France’s population was born abroad, 11 percent are children of at least one immigrant, and an additional 10 percent have immigrant grandparents.
Given that France is officially a “color-blind” nation that does not record ethnicity in its census, this research offers a rare insight into the effects of intergenerational immigration.
Guette is not alone within LFI in applauding the decrease of the white population in France; last year, Carlos Martens Bilongo, an Angolan MP for La France Insoumise, claimed that “it would be too bad for them if we had more children than them,” urging ethnic minorities to interbreed with the French to “demonstrate that we are more numerous and more intelligent.”
