French President Emmanuel Macron got some praise Monday from a most unlikely source: Nigel Farage, father of the "Brexit" movement that took the United Kingdom out of the European Union.
In a conference call with listeners throughout the U.S., Farage hailed Macron — with whom he has long been at odds over the EU — for his steadfast refusal to remove any statues from France's colonial era.
"Remarkably, I have to give Emmanuel Macron a lot of credit," Farage told a conference call, "In the face of protests, he is adamant not a single trace of France's history is going to come down."
Last week, in vowing to be "uncompromising in the face of racism, anti-Semitism, and discrimination," the French president left no doubt he would not authorize removal of controversial statues that demonstrators have condemned for their association with France's years as a colonial power in Africa.
"The Republic will not erase any trace, or any name, from its history," Macron declared.
He called on Frenchmen to "look at all of our history together," with a goal of "truth" instead of "denying who we are."
In calling Macron an "uber-Europeanist" and someone with whom he agrees on "virtually nothing," Farge nonetheless told the American callers the Frenchman "was absolutely right on the statues and, sadly, markedly different from Boris [Johnson]."
The British prime minister waited days after a statue of Winston Churchill was defaced, before issuing a statement denouncing the actions of protesters.
Hours before Farage's remarks, a statue of Charles de Gaulle in Haut Mont (near the Belgian border) was vandalized and defaced with the word "slaver." De Gaulle, leader of France's wartime resistance and founder of its present 5th Republic, granted independence to longtime French colony Algeria shortly after becoming president in 1958.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.