It is the kind of endorsement you don’t expect.  A top officer of Al Qaeda in charge of French recruiting, Omar Diaby, told a journalist that French voters should vote for Marie Le Pen and her National Front party.  She will keep them out of war, he said.

French voters are likely to accommodate his wishes.  The National Front is now the top choice for French youth.  But it isn’t the only choice.  Generation Identitaire, the youth wing of the Bloc Identitare, just held a large march in Paris to oppose Islamic migration into France.  The National Front is often painted as “far right wing” in the media, but in fact it is a socialist party.  Even Germany’s Alternative for Deutschland party has rejected formal alliance with the National Front out of a desire to avoid its left-wing agenda as well as its history, until recently, of voicing Antisemitism.  There have been meetings between the parties’ leadership, but so far nothing has emerged from them.

The Bloc Identitare offers as an alternative a French nationalism that is coupled with a pro-European, but anti-American outlook.  Yet it is clearly motivated by a rejection of the spread of Islam.  Members seized and occupied a mosque near the famous battlefield where Charles Martel destroyed invading Muslim armies in the eighth century.  They have also challenged illegal but common Islamic street prayers by holding “sausage and wine” parties in among the masses of Muslims blocking the streets.  (Sausages have become a weapon in several cultural disputes in Europe recently, such as this week’s raid on a vegan cafe in Tbilisi.)  Police declared their parties to be an illegal, racist provocation.

Polls indicate that the three top issues for French youth are jobs, security, and immigration.  The pressure of mass Islamic immigration is causing an apparent shift to these once-fringe groups, as they are the only political parties who will consistently oppose mass immigration.  They are also the only groups who will voice opposition to a demographic shift towards Islam.  When the so-called “responsible” political parties will not address the voters’ concerns, and when police shut down attempts to force the issue into the public discussion, it is no surprise that parties that will address these concerns grow in size and power.