French education minister declares war on American 'wokeism'
Jean-Michel Blanquer said, 'This ideology provoked a reaction and led to the rise of Donald Trump'
The French government has declared war on U.S.-imported "wokeism," with the education minister warning that the left-wing ideology is what contributed to the rise of former U.S. President Trump.
"The [French] Republic is completely contrary to wokeism," French Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said in an interview last week with Le Monde, according to a translation by Politico. "In the United States, this ideology provoked a reaction and led to the rise of Donald Trump.
FRANCE REJECTS AMERICAN 'WOKE' CULTURE THAT IS 'RACIALIZING' COUNTRY
"France and its youth have to escape that," he said.
Blanquer is leading a new government think tank, Le Laboratoire de la République, which is tasked with promoting the French brand of secularism and rejecting woke ideology – an extreme form of political correctness that focuses on societal injustices, especially racism.
French secularism, on the other hand, transcends race, gender and religion and is truly egalitarian, Politico reported.
"Our country has become a target of the woke movement," Pierre Valentin, an expert at the think tank, said at its launch last week, Politico reported. "If there was a vaccine against the woke virus, it would be French and the leaders of the movement know that."
"We are receiving signals of alert from university staff who tell us funds are being channeled towards a certain number of theories," said MP Aurore Bergé, Politico reported. "There’s the feeling here that [freedom of] thought is being narrowed to a vision that is not ours."
French President Emmanuel Macron is running for reelection in April, and conservative commentator Eric Zemmour has been floated as a possible anti-establishment opponent in the race, though he has not officially declared his candidacy. Zemmour has embraced comparisons of himself to Trump.
Macron, who has been criticized by French progressives, told Elle Magazine this past summer that woke culture was "racializing" French society, Zenger News reported earlier this month.
"I see that our society is becoming progressively racialized," he said at the time.
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Several members of his government have also shared anti-woke views, including Elisabeth Moreno, the French minister delegate for gender equality and diversity.
"The ‘woke’ culture is something very dangerous, and we shouldn’t bring it to France," she told Bloomberg News in May.
Fox News' Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
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