Former French Minister: “If My Name Had Been Moussa Darmanin, I wouldn’t Have Been Elected Mayor and MP”

A statement by the former French Interior Minister, Gérald Moussa Darmanin, summed up the concerns of French people of non-French origins who want to enter the political arena and assume senior positions and responsibilities in the French state.

This remarkable and unprecedented statement was made while Darmanin believed his political career was over after handing over.

As he handed over his position to his successor at the Interior Ministry, Bruno Retailleau, Darmanin said: “My name is Gérald Moussa Jean Darmanin. It is obvious that if I had been called Moussa Darmanin, I would not have been elected mayor and deputy and probably would not have been appointed Interior Minister in the first place,” perhaps he wanted to address this message to his successor, who is obsessed with fighting immigration and expelling immigrants.

In his statement, Gérald Moussa Darmanin spoke about his family’s Algerian origins and paid special tribute to his grandfather, who was an Algerian rifleman who served France. Darmanin went off script to add: “My name is Gérald Moussa Jean Darmanin. My father, at the maternity hospital in Valenciennes, wanted to write ‘Moussa Darmanin’, the name of my grandfather, an Algerian rifleman who had served France. (…) It is quite obvious if we are honest, that if I had been called Moussa Darmanin, I would not have been elected mayor and deputy, and I probably would not have been Minister of the Interior in the first place. (…) That does not take away anything from my education, my merit, my love for France. But we have to face facts,” he proclaimed.

Darmanin’s seemed to be an expression of concern and perhaps the same as others among the non-French origins, due to the growing racism and xenophobia in France, which is now mentioned in a bad light whenever the issue of immigration is raised and the suffering of immigrants is discussed.

It did not pass without repercussions in the French political scene in France. The strange thing is that the one who criticized this statement was another French politician of Algerian origin, but he blatantly disavowed it, namely Jordan Bardella, the head of the “National Rally” party, which was called the extremist “National Front”, founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen, one of the founders of the terrorist Secret Army Organization (OAS), which killed thousands of Algerians and French in its quest to keep the French Algeria.

In a post on his “X” account, Bardella considered what was issued by Gérald Darmanin as “an insult to the French”, and said: “It would be interesting if Gérald Darmanin explained his remarks”, and asked: ” Who does he consider racist: the inhabitants of Tourcoing, the members of the police institution, the French in general?”, adding that “this statement is an insult to France which has given him everything and which gives a chance to all those who respect it,” showing a harmonious position with the extreme right, whose leaders do not hesitate to attack anyone who does not go along with their racist ambitions.

Another interesting point is that Bardella shares the same origin with Darmanin, as both are of Algerian origin, Bardella’s grandfather came from Tizi Ouzou (eastern Algiers), but his grandchild threw himself into the arms of a political movement and a party that formulated its positions on hostility to immigrants, and in doing so he is insulting his origins, unlike Darmanin who still talks about his origins and is proud of his family.