Julien Langella was co-founder of the Generation Identitaire movement and is currently vice-president of the Academia Christiana association. He is the author of Catholics and Identitarians: From Protest to Reconquest and Remaking a People: For a Radical Populism.
This interview was conducted at the end of October 2023. On December 10, 2023, Academia Christiana announced that Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin instituted proceedings to dissolve the association.
Academia Christiana has just celebrated its tenth anniversary. What is your assessment of what it has achieved so far?
We are usually asked what our main victory has been, and after ten years our greatest victory is that we still exist and that we have grown beyond what we expected—not only in numbers, but also because we have crossed the barriers that divide the conservative landscape in France. At our first summer universities, we had about forty attendees. Now, more than three hundred attend, and more than 500 attended our last open days. On a socio-political level, we have managed to unite people coming from the bourgeoisie with those coming from the working class, and we have broken down the social barrier between the two groups. We have also managed to bring many young French people—people of good will who were not Catholics—closer to the faith, encouraging them to start asking questions, and that is what the Church asks us to do: to address people of good will.
Academia Christiana has a militant aspect that does not exist in many organisations linked to the faith. In many cases, other groups do not participate in political or social activities, choosing to focus only on the spiritual. How have you managed to unite politics and spirituality?
There are two explanations: a traditional one and a more modern one. The traditional explanation is due to the classical situation in France where, since the counter-revolution and the events of the Vendée, the defence of the ancien régime and the Church are united. The other explanation is because of a new generation: I am 36 years old and our president, Victor Aubert, is even younger. Tradition has encouraged these new converts to Catholicism who have grown up alongside the illiberal and anti-modern Left and the neo-pagan Right. It is clear to this generation that the truth is on their side and the main objective of Academia Christiana has been, from the beginning, to call for action. From this initial formation group, a community and a cultural movement has been forged, as well as a refuge and a stimulus for militants of the radical Right who face severe persecution by the government. For militant and committed Catholics, we are both the catacombs in which to take refuge and regain strength, and the banner that stands at the front of the fighters. We do politics in a noble sense, bringing together all the good initiatives of the political and radical Right.
The best example of such persecution was the outlawing of Generation Identitaire for denouncing immigration and Islamisation—basically for pointing out the incapabilities of the French government.
Yes, but it goes beyond the system’s hatred of patriotic radicalism. Liberal society’s means of maintaining itself is to take on a protective role that, under the pretext of neutrality and impartiality, lumps together eco-terrorists, leftists, Islamists, and identitarians. This protective role eliminates all radicalisms that fall outside the sphere of political parties. Just as the unvaccinated had no access to the public space, so radicals have no access to the agora. In France, this extends even to regional and local movements, which are now also under threat of being outlawed. Curiously, the person responsible for this policy is an interior minister who comes from the Catholic and conservative world. In fact, several ministers of the current government participated in the Manif pour Tous movement that demonstrated against the parody of same-sex marriage—and I say parody because same-sex marriage does not exist. Emmanuel Macron’s efforts to unite the bourgeoisie and all those attracted by “order” should not be underestimated.
Earlier you mentioned the Vendée. The French film Vaincre ou mourir (To Win or Die), which tells the story of the struggle of the counter-revolutionaries, has been a success. Is it a good example of what the cultural struggle should be?
Yes, it started with Puy du Fou [an historical theme park], which has normalised a part of French history. I can give you the example of a neighbour, a communist merchant from a communist family, who discovered the existence of the counter-revolutionaries thanks to Puy du Fou. As for Vaincre ou mourir, it is a film that goes beyond defending being a Catholic or not being a Republican. It is not a film in favour of religious freedom because, when you see it, you can’t take the side of the Republicans. The most interesting thing is that the principles that you see in the film are acceptable to the conservative bourgeoisie, but then nobody is able to take them out of the private sphere and defend them politically. I think that highlighting this fact adds a lot of value to the film.
What is Academia Christiana’s relationship with the Church?
We are the church militant and the Church is much more than its hierarchy. We have never been mistreated by our bishops and we have never received any pressure. However, many traditionalists have not liked the fact that we have opened up to non-Catholics, something that for us is a generational issue, since we have taken the word “identitarian” as a banner and as a meeting point for a wide variety of groups. We do not complain about the Church, but about the cowardice and lukewarmness of many of our friends. However, we believe that the tradition is now in the hands of a generation of young people who constitute a healthy and vigorous, and therefore conquering, body that does not have to be afraid to coexist with old groups as long as it is not afraid of victory.
Nor are we afraid to collaborate with people of good will—for example, members of the New Right—as long as their discourse is not contrary to Catholic doctrine. Our policy is never to criticise those who share our virtues of courage and strength, and who defend the same heroes. Pope Francis says that we must go to the periphery; well, we choose our periphery.
Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world and this is happening under the absolute indifference of both the media and ostensibly Christian nations. Is it necessary to revive the Christianity of the Crusade?
Yes, it is important to recover the spirit of crusade which, in another form, was also the spirit of the Spanish conquistadors. I often wonder with which historical epoch or hero we can identify. We might think that we are in the time like that of the first Christians, but the message of the Church is not a new message, as it was then. We may think that the barbarians are coming, but the Roman Empire of the 5th century was a much less decadent Christian society. Instead, I think of the conquerors—because many of us are in a hostile environment—especially Hernán Cortes, who knew how to be a lion and a fox at the same time, establishing alliances with one hand and smashing idols with the other. I think of how to be like him: to be bold and, without breaking with tradition, not to fear being insolent. We are rebels out of fidelity.
Houllebecq’s Submission presents a France that, faced with an absolute lack of values, accepts Islamisation. Do you think this scenario could become possible?
I haven’t read the novel as he is not a very attractive author for French conservatives, but there are two interesting strategies regarding Islamisation. On the one hand, there is the banning of certain clothes, which may be a pretext to force them to leave. However, in practise these laws have been used against us because they are being enforced by secularists. The second strategy is to tell Muslims that we have our own identity, as they have theirs, and that we are not meant to live together. We should not join them against the modernists just because they, too, are monotheists and universalists. In my opinion, Islam is a false universalism that hides the flag of Arab ethnicity; it does not respect anything other than strength and virility. That is why our first effort must be to remake strong Catholics—not to create wise monkeys, but burning hearts, because only they can speak to other burning hearts.