Melenchon’s historic speech against American imperialism

Absolutely extraordinary speech by Melenchon, leader of the French left, about how the US “wants war” with China.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon is a French politician, leader of the left-wing party La France Insoumise. Born in 1951, he began his career with the Socialist Party, where he held several ministerial positions. In 2008, he left the PS to found the Parti de Gauche and later La France Insoumise. Mélenchon is known for his anti-neoliberal positions, criticism of the European Union and advocacy of progressive social policies. He ran in the French presidential elections in 2012, 2017 and 2022, achieving significant popular support, especially among young people and workers. Mélenchon defends a Sixth Republic and an ecological transition.

Here it is in full:

“The center of the world, at this time when the most terrible war is being prepared, is not on European soil. It’s there, between the coasts of the Americas and the coasts of Asia. This was reiterated yesterday at an international conference held in Singapore, where the Americans repeated that, whatever happens in Europe or the Middle East, their priority is in the Asia-Pacific zone, which they call the Indo-Pacific so that the enemy be better identified. For them, it is China. They want war because 50% of the world’s wealth is produced there.

More than 50% of the world’s population is there. The United States of America is in competition with China, but not ideologically. Who initiated the first agreements with China to outsource factories, if not the United States of America itself? They can’t tell us it’s a fight for freedom against I don’t know what. This is all bullshit. It’s just because China is becoming the world’s leading power and from then on, gradually, dollars will no longer be used as much as before to trade goods.

Thus, the empire is struck at its core. Their core is their currency, which they can print as much as they want because they are not subject to any of the rules that apply to all other nations. They can print as much as they want, as long as you need it for your exchanges, to buy raw materials, to buy oil, to buy minerals, etc., etc. And the day this stops, that is, the day the nations agree among themselves to pay with their currency, it is over, and the empire collapses.

Therefore, they enter into a competition that is not free and completely distorted, supported by weapons. That’s their policy. And meanwhile, the European fools are there saying, “Oh, sure, we agree with freedom. Oh, sure, that’s a great program.” When this North American program, in fact, also involves robbing Europe, as it has already begun.

That’s where the greatest threat of war is because it would be a total war, because the weapons there don’t have the same range, the same meaning as in other places. As in Europe, notably atomic weapons. Remember what I’m telling you because you’re going to pay a little more attention to this as you hear more about it. And we, the French, are concerned because we are present in this zone through Polynesia, through the territory of New Caledonia Kanaki, through our presence in Réunion, in the Indian Ocean.

So the French have something to say, and in particular this: we don’t want a war with China. And we will oppose it by all diplomatic means to prevent this from happening.”