"It's very good that there are yellow French people, black French people, brown French people. They show that France is open to all races and that it has a universal vocation. But on the condition that they remain a small minority. Otherwise, France would no longer be France. We are above all a European people of white race, Greek and Latin culture and Christian religion. Let's not tell stories! Have you gone to see the Muslims? Did you look at them with their turbans and their djellabas? You see clearly that they are not French. Those who advocate integration have the brains of hummingbirds, even if they are very learned. Try to incorporate oil and vinegar. Shake the bottle. After a while, they will separate again. Arabs are Arabs, French are French. Do you believe that the French body can absorb ten million Muslims, who tomorrow will be twenty million and the day after tomorrow forty? If we integrate, if all the Arabs and Berbers of Algeria were considered French, how would we prevent them from settling in mainland France, when the standard of living is so much higher there? My village would no longer be called Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises, but Colombey-les-Deux-Mosqués!"
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Military leaders from FranceLegion of Honour recipientsHeads of governmentPresidents of FrancePrime Ministers of France
Original Language: English
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5 March 1959, conversation with Alain Peyrefitte. Quoted in "It was De Gaulle" ("C'était de Gaulle"), Volume 1, 1994, pg 52. Editions de Fallois et Fayard.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_de_Gaulle
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