Qualms & Wires

So here's how it panned out.

First, french/cypriot rapper/MC Diam's launches a virulent indictment of France's Nationalist party - Front National, in the form of a mournful anthem and call to arms, which primarily targets, or rather adresses, Marine Le Pen, French MEP and daughter of the party Leader Jean Marie. Watch.

Next, Marine retaliates with an appearance on french topical television programme Tout le Monde en Parle, claiming to have written a personal note to Diam's effectively iniviting her out to coffee and/or to engage in a debate about immigration. So explicitly personal & high profile was the attack, & in the aftermath of the songs success, a response of some kind was to be anticipated, however, perhaps Marine is cleverer than we might give her credit for. Watch.

Let's be clear about the format here, Diam's hardly issued a point-by-point condemnation of the FN's immigration policies. There is nothing objective about this. You don't need to have graduated from the ENA in order to realise, that this is not constructive criticism. Furthermore - "F**k the national front" is one thing, professing one's hatred of a certain individual, night after night, in town after town, is nothing short of a provocation. Especially given that, as anyone familiar with the text itself might attest, it hardly constitutes what one might call diplomatic, balanced rhetoric.

For these reasons, and especially in light of the fact that Marine's name was used in such a prominent way, her decision to react publicly was legitimate. And the way she did it, could - a priori - be construed as ballsy, incisive even - insidious, exposing the artist as all talk and no substance.

But it's very doubtful of course, whether Diam's' aim in creating & releaisng the song was with a view to initiating a debate on immigration with Marine herself.

After all we know how diams feels about the issue - she's a young radical "metisse", just as we know how Marine feels about it, she's an FN spokesperson and Jean Marie's daughter for crying out loud, no well-natured debate over coffee or on live television is going to alter that, they are conditioned to disagree with one another, to lie at opposite ends of the spectrum, which is probably precisely why Diam's chose to direct her grievances in Marine's direction, rather than that of say, Segolene Royal, whom she may not see entirely eye to eye with, but still shares a great deal more common ground than a nationalist nutcase who's been brainwashed by her forbears (did I hear someone mention "Pret-a-penser"...?).

This lament was not a personal attack against Marine at all. Marine is irrelevant, she is entirely beside the point (along with her replique, no less). The phrase "we'll never be friends because my mother's french but I wasn't born here" - is not made to be taken literally. Rather, she serves as a symbol, a target, and a vehicle for a message and an appeal, as opposed to anger & slogans directed at a faceless organisation - and as such, one supposed, is designed to render it more poignant, more human. If Marine hasn't worked that out, I think any earlier attributed credit ought to be swiftly & summarily revoked.

For anyone wishing to familiarise themselves with some of Marine's policy stances: http://www.pourquivoter.com