Twenty retired generals and scores of ex-officers have sparked a political furore in France after calling on President Emmanuel Macron to stop the country from descending into chaos and “civil war” at the hands of Islamists, reports The Telegraph.
Led by Jean-Pierre Fabre-Bernadac, a retired Gendarmerie general, and signed by 80 other retired officers, the open letter to Mr Macron was published in Valeurs Actuelles, a right-wing news magazine, last week.
Strongly supported by Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally and presidential candidate, the text was this week dismissed by Mr Macron’s government as a diatribe from a bunch of military pensioners who “only represent themselves”.
It was, it said, sadly reminiscent of the Algiers putsch - an attempt to oust Charles de Gaulle 60 years ago by retired generals who opposed moves towards granting Algeria, then a French colony, independence after a bloody civil war.
However, the appeal has gained traction just days after a woman police employee had her throat slashed by an Islamist who had entered France illegally from Tunisia before eventually being granted residency.