Paul:"right wing Socialist"
That sounds like "fascist" to me. How accurate is that perception?
Very accurate indeed. I could be nitpicking as to define fascism strictly as right-wing, but that's a minor issue really. The "sovereignists" are a part of the larger nationalist swamp, among which you'll find for instance, Mr Le Pen. They are not lepenists, at least not technically, but they do share a great deal of views with them.
Troy:Can anyone tell me how important this guy is? Is he in the ruling party? (…)
Not exactly. Well… no, not really, even though they are closer to Chirac's ruling party than, say, the Green. To put it very briefly, Chirac's party is a spawn of Gaullism, that emanated from de Gaulle, while the "sovereignists" are the kind of blokes that don't really believe de Gaulle is dead (as well as Napoleon and Jehan of Arc actually).
As to know if Mr. Chirac had anything to say about that, well, I can't tell really. But then, bear in mind what this guy recalls: " That is the policy my country pursued in the 1970s when it gave Iraq a nuclear force. ", and that is to say… Mr Chirac precisely, who was France's Prime Minister at the time (I imagine everybody saw that picture of young Chirac and Hussein having fun in white casaque).
Papertiger:
I agree that more contexts could be interesting (mind you: the bloke is an MP, not a minister) but then, the simple idea that elected members of the European Parliament can even think about such policy is way off limits. This is, to put it bluntly, an open call for genocide.
As for the trip, I can tell you that I'm closer to it than I've never been so far. I still have a long way to America, but I should be definitely and permanently entering the Anglosphere (at least) pretty soon. That's a start, and I'm so sick with France that I just can't stand it anymore, anyway.
Frank:
Thanks for that extensive comment. Take a seat, be my guest in the dacha. And welcome to my blogroll.