russian – ThursdayAgain

France’s extreme right-wing National Front is again being ridiculed after its youth movement’s latest campaign aimed at “highlighting anti-French racism.”

The poster campaign by the National Front youth group, le Front National de la jeunesse (FNJ), shows the face of a woman painted in the colors of the French flag. She is pictured with her mouth wide open as if addressing a cheering, tricolor-waving crowd.

Above her face is the campaign slogan, “Enough of anti-French racism, This is our home!”.

But (& you know what’s coming now, don’t you?) France is not her home. The face is that of a Russian model from St. Petersburg, who speaks no French.

The irony is lost on the director of the FNJ, Julien Rochedy, who has denied the idea that the use of a non-French model makes the campaign look even more foolish.

“We knew from the beginning that this woman was from Russia, but nobody cares,” Rochedy claimed.

“What is important is that her facial expression corresponds with our slogan (maybe the slogan should be, “Foreign women, paint your face the same color as the tricolor & you’ll look like a Parisienne with a bad drug habit”). People are not bothered about her origin, she could quite easily be French,” said Rochedy (& he said it with a straight face – brilliant).

It appears the FNJ bought one of the model’s photos, before superimposing the colors of the French Tricolor as well as photoshopping out a slightly “low rent” & dubiously-ethnic ear piercing.

It is not the first time a campaign by the far-right party has left it open to accusations of double standards & sloppy research.

During Marine Le Pen’s presidential election campaign, at a time when the candidates were evoking the protectionist values of “Made in France” products, the media revealed that the T-shirts worn by her supporters daubed with the words “Marine’s boys” were actually made in Bangladesh.

Now if we all agree that Andreas Breivik looks like he “could quite easily be French” the loons in the National Front youth wing could have a new poster-boy & Presidential candidate all in one nice, blond, aryan package; & at least he shares their values – a big step forward in the credibility stakes.