Zemmour, who is Jewish, argues that by first deporting foreign Jews to Germany's death camps, Vichy actually helped save French Jews

A French Best-Seller's Radical Argument: 

Vichy Regime Wasn't All Bad

by ELEANOR BEARDSLEY

Le voile se déchire. Il est temps de déconstruire les déconstructeurs. Année après  année, événement après événement, président après président, chanson après chanson, film après film… L’histoire totale d’une déconstruction joyeuse, savante et obstinée des moindres rouages qui avaient édifié la France

On a recent night in France, conservative journalist Eric Zemmour, author of Le Suicide Francais (French Suicide), was under attack on a talk show — again. The debate over Zemmour's book has monopolized conversation on the airwaves and in cafes.

In a nutshell, Zemmour says France is in decline because its traditional values — nation, family — have been destroyed over the past 40 years and replaced by a feminist, pro-gay, egalitarian agenda imposed on the country by left-wing elites. And, he says, the country has been undermined by successive waves of Muslim immigration.

"France today is suffering from a spiritual and an identity crisis," he tells NPR. "Plus we've been subjected to massive immigration — Muslims who reject our culture. So the French feel overwhelmed and they don't recognize themselves or their country anymore."

The book coincides with the growing political success of the far-right National Front Party, but Zemmour denies any connection. He says he's involved in ideological combat, not politics. Still, critics say his book attempts to give intellectual justification to the policies of the far right.

A Symptom Of Crisis

Whatever the critics say, Le Suicide Francais has certainly struck a chord. In a popular Paris bookstore, employee Olivier Gras says they've reordered the book four times and can't seem to keep it in stock. The 500-plus-page best-seller is packed with footnotes and references and has an intellectual patina — a big selling point in a country that worships intellectuals.

.....................

Read more: www.npr.org/