The French Dispatch is a reader-supported publication, so if you enjoy reading this, click the like button above, share it within your network, and consider paying a subscription.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin may be known to many of you France watchers.

For some of you, Damanin is a former Sarkozyist deputy who is considered a ‘traitor’ by his former colleagues after having renounced his support from 2017 Presidential candidate François Fillon after the Fillon affair broke, quitting as the Les Républicain deputy general secretary.

For some of you, the accusations of abuse made against him which created a political tornado for the presidential majority across several elections and brought into question the ‘feminist’ credentials of President Emmanuel Macron.

For others, he represents a hard-line security standpoint, having banned a pro-Palestinian rally and defended the Police on numerous occasions, all while making statements against halal and kosher food aisles in supermarkets.

And for some of you, he represents a train of thought where security needs to be more focused on nearly enough. He is doing the right thing by defending internal security forces and pushing for more financing for the security sector.

But today, we won’t be talking about any of these things, as another polemic has popped up related to historical revisionism regarding a statement he made regarding slavery at a symposium organised by Le Point.

So what happened?

Following the adoption of a new (independent movement) flag of Martinique that will now fly alongside the French Tricolore, he defended this by noting that former President Nicolas Sarkozy has agreed upon this because of the particular history of the island.

Here’s what he said:

Unfortunately, many people didn’t appreciate this statement, and a press release supported by twenty deputies from the Antilles, Guyana, Reunion and Polynesia, which was considered a historically revisionist point of view and an example of moral relativism:

“The moral relativism of the colonising powers, persuaded to bring culture and knowledge to the populations whose capacities for self-determination they undermined at the same time as they killed their creative power, seems to have been succeeded by a new form of historical revisionism."

They argued that "the abolition of slavery is above all the fruit of the struggle of our ancestors, the consecration of so many women and men to sacrificed lives, the result of the constant resistance of slaves”.

They also made a point to highlight the various rebellions and demands that led to the freedom of many former colonies, which were “forced to snatch their freedom where the decisions of the Republic mentioned by Gérald Darmanin were slow to be proclaimed, and even more so, to be applied”.

When dealing with a centre-right or right-wing politician, you can expect discussions of this kind to open the door to a few free hits on the topic of post-colonialism and the history of our country in its former colonial empire, but the door was left ajar.

The deputies quickly added another criticism, that of “chronic underdevelopment” of the French Republic’s overseas territories.

"It is this same Republic which maintains our overseas territories in a state of chronic underdevelopment and which almost systematically ignores the overseas territories in the bills presented to Parliament, gradually stripping the latter of its prerogatives.”

What does this mean for him?

With a running battle over French colonial history and discussions over many of our crimes across our history, you would be forgiven for expecting this to damage the interior minister somehow.

However, this situation is unlikely to damage him much, both due to him being known as a right-wing politician and being expected, justifiably or not, to have this kind of worldview, but also due to his position in French political society.

Firstly, there are rumours and analyses across France that Darmanin is given more freedom with these news stories due to his utility as a former LR member, which supports the government’s work and allows them to maintain a link with the right.

True or not, and while this is impossible to verify, it’s still something to bear in mind.

It should also be noted that, while it may seem like a comment and may be considered a whitewashing of what France did during the decolonising era, he does not pardon any of the behaviour undertaken by the French monarchy, empire or republic, but takes the standpoint of focusing on what France achieved with its decolonising (for better or for worse).

However, let’s look at how this could hit him.

With Gérald Darmanin rumoured to be preparing for a presidential run in 2027 and being considered one of the current faction leaders within the Presidential majority, this kind of crisis is something he wants to avoid.

With competing faction leaders like Edouard Philippe (Horizons) and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire (Renaissance), he must avoid having any slip-ups as he prepares for a campaign that would be brutal.

However, early in January, he answered a question on RTL about this potential candidacy by claiming that it would be “extremely pretentious” to already consider succeeding Emmanuel Macron.

Having evoked that French Presidents have “extraordinary skills [and] a desire that sometimes borders on madness”, he described himself as not having those qualities ( yet).

Regardless of his apparent bulletproof nature, this will still have an impact of some sort. Suppose these stories and situations keep building up. In that case, this could torpedo any presidential campaign he may launch in future, no matter whether he develops the “skills”, “desire”, and “madness” he deems a requirement.

All it takes is for the political pendulum to swing away from the centre or the right for one election cycle to make his politics, reputation, and the reputations of those standing by and supporting him, damaging his campaign and leaving him as yet another historical footnote of the Fifth French Republic.

Thank you for reading the French Dispatch! If you liked what you read, you should like this post and subscribe to the newsletter by clicking/tapping the button below:

And if you’d like to contribute a coffee or two to help fuel my coverage of the wild world of politics, feel free to click on the picture below: