An engineer and graduate of the Ecole polytechnique of Alger, MBA major at Sciences Po-Paris and essayist author of “Décomposition française” and “Les dindons de la farce” (Albin Michel), Malika Sorel was a member of the High Council on Integration. This proponent of assimilation and secularism came second on the Rassemblement National list for the European elections. Explanations.

– Your personal, intellectual and political background as a Frenchwoman of Algerian immigrant descent is a plea for assimilation. Was it partly because this choice was devalued in mainstream public discourse that you joined the Rassemblement National?

– Malika Sorel: In my writings, I denounce the existence of an absurd and counterproductive “non-assimilation bonus”. I often think of Algeria, where I lived, and the fact that this absurdity could never have blossomed there, let alone flourished. For years now, I’ve been talking to political figures of all stripes to motivate them to take action. When Jordan Bardella contacted me, he was talking about the fight for France. It was the urgency of the moment that made me agree to take part in these elections. Remaining passive was destroying me from the inside. It was at the time of the suburban riots in 2005 that I entered the arena of political ideas. It was then that I realised the scale of the challenges and the totally out-of-touch attitude of a large proportion of the political class, who were stubbornly reducing everything to a socio-economic issue, when it was clear before our very eyes that we were facing a deep malaise linked to a lack of identity.

Assimilation is a moral and emotional process, and therefore cannot be imposed. But care had to be taken not to make it impossible. Over time, however, a number of political decisions have meant that this is only done at the margins. The Civil Code made the granting of French nationality – and therefore the right to vote – conditional on successful assimilation. The elites have trampled it underfoot. It is a major source of the serious problems now facing our society. Assimilation cannot be imposed, but cultural integration must be. Without it, there can be no peaceful, lasting life! Inclusion is simply respecting the rules of the country where you live, even if you don’t share them in your heart. It’s what we do spontaneously when we find ourselves abroad.

– What do you say to those who see your commitment as being at odds with your origins?

– Genetics do not determine identity. The ethno-racial approach is, in fact, racist. Even if they are similar in their approach and in their aim, which is to deny that identity can be dynamic, two groups should be distinguished here:

In the first instance, there are those who see Frenchness in terms of race and religion, and who cite Alain Peyrefitte’s description of General de Gaulle as reducing France to “Europeans of white race, Greek and Latin culture and Christian religion”. In this way, we close the door on, or make suspicious, all those who do not fit into this definition. This approach has been extended to first names. Jean-Luc, who bears the first names of two Christian saints and who, in the words of Kamel Daoud, is trying “with Rima Hassan, to monopolise pro-Palestinian emotions and the ‘Muslim’ if not Islamist electorate”, with the devastation we are seeing, is French. The same goes for Emmanuel, who claims that “there is no French culture”. On the other hand, Malika, and through her, all those who do not have so-called French first names and do not come from Christian families, see their Frenchness suspected and even sometimes denied.