Lyndon LaRouche Interview with Radio France Internationale
December 20, 2023
Click here to listen to an archive of the show (in French)

Here is the transcript of Lyndon LaRouche's 20-minute interview with Radio France Internationale's "Signes Particuliers" broadcast on Dec. 20, with host Pierre-Edouard Deldique. The interview is available on www.rfi.fr. The broadcast will also air three more times on Sunday (21:40), Monday (03:10), and Tuesday (16:40) all times are Central European. The questions were in French, and not translated for the listening audience, while LaRouche's English answers were translated sequentially into French. The questions here are only loosely paraphrased, for time reasons.
Lyn was introduced as a Presidential candidate in the United States, who has run since 1976.

RFI: Hello, Mr. LaRouche

LaRouche: Good day.

RFI: I'm happy to have with me a future Presidential candidate. You are a well-known person in the United States, because you are upsetting.

LaRouche: Some people think so.

RFI: Who, for example?

LaRouche: Well, I think that--presently, I think that Vice President Dick Cheney is one of the people who hates me the most.

RFI: So, Lyndon LaRouche: A first question that may be perhaps futile, but, your name is, "LaRouche," a name with a French origin?

LaRouche: Well, this comes by virtue of Colbert, in the 17th Century, to Quebec. And my grandfather, of mine, came from Quebec into the United States.

RFI: You are originally an economist?

LaRouche: Yes, essentially most of my work has been in the field of economics.

RFI: What began to interest you in politics, that you decided to run for President in 1976?

LaRouche: '75-76, yes. The first, actually it was the combined effect of the Missile Crisis of 1962, and the Kennedy assassination and the beginning of the Indo-China War: This convinced me that I had to intervene in politics in some way.

RFI: Let me specify that Lyndon LaRouche, you are one of the candidates from the Democratic Party for the U.S. Presidential election.

LaRouche: Yes, for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

RFI: Has the Democratic Party changed, do you think, in the last 20 or 30 years?

LaRouche: It changed. Actually, still, in the times of Kennedy, the Democratic Party leadership, as I identified with it, was the tradition of Franklin Roosevelt. Which is my tradition. And after that, the Democratic Party moved to the right.

RFI: Can one say, Mr. LaRouche, that you are--if one were to compare you in France--on the extreme left in the Democratic Party?

LaRouche: No, I think not. The extreme left has a different connotation than I represent. I'm very much, shall we say, a follower of people such as Alexander Hamilton, and so forth--as Franklin Roosevelt was.

RFI: When one speaks with you, Lyndon LaRouche, you "embrace ideas," as we say in French.

LaRouche: Yes, I suppose so. I'm a very a independent person, and I've done a lot of work in a lot of fields. I work 80 hours a week.

RFI: Lyndon LaRouche, I would like you to listen to a Frenchman who is well-read about the United States, Philippe d'Ambourner [ph]; he watches U.S. politics very closely. Let's hear what he says about you:

"...He has always been associated with the Democratic Party. He is accused today of having certain positions which are like the extreme right. And in general, he is seen as marginal personage.... Somebody asked me, of Lyndon LaRouche, `Is he a Gaullist, in his manner? Why does he have a position so strongly anti-English? Why do the authors associated with Lyndon LaRouche speak of Anglo-American conspiracies? Do they really believe them? Does Lyndon LaRouche believe there is an American.."

He says you have a "sulfurous" reputation in the United States. Is this true?

LaRouche: No. There are a certain section of the press, and certain financial interests, which decided I was becoming all too influential, and they used defamation, rather than argument.

RFI: Well, Philippe d'Ambournet [ph] also said you were a sort of "American Gaullist."

LaRouche: Well, from a standpoint of France, yes, that would be a fair perception among French, even though that would not be appropriate in the United States, as such.

RFI: He said also you were against a certain "English order" in the United States.

LaRouche: Well, not exactly. There is a tradition of the British East India Company, which is represented in the financial world inside the United States, and in the political world. And I'm opposed to the Anglo-Dutch Liberal system of parliamentary government. And there's a tendency in the United States in that direction.

And I would add, that--to make it simpler--I have the same enemies in the United States, in this regard, that Franklin Roosevelt had. But otherwise, there are people in the United Kingdom that I agree with.

RFI: What gives you the energy, the courage, the willingness to continue the political struggle, since, well now, 30 years?

LaRouche: Well, I've been fighting constantly about many things. I've been fighting for the so-called Third World causes, I've been fighting for other causes, I'm fighting for causes all the time.

Essentially, the issue is, we went in the United States, through a cultural-paradigm shift downward 40 years ago. Today, we're in a bankrupt world, which has been through this so-called "new wave" of policies. It's ended. We have an international financial crisis; we have also war dangers, which are associated with the financial crisis. The time has come to change back to the kind of policies we had in the 1950s and early 1960s. That's where the comparison to, say, the de Gaulle of the early 1960s comes in.

RFI: So, Lyndon LaRouche, do they say in the United States that it's only possible to be elected President if one heads up a great fortune. At the moment we speak, we know, for example, that George Bush has already more than $100 million for his campaign. Does that mean that in the United States, one can only be elected with lots of money?

LaRouche: Not necessarily. There's a politics which is based on money. And obviously, any campaign needs money. But, the amount of money you need, varies with the kind of your campaign. My campaign is largely based on a popular base, in the streets--not so much through the media.

RFI: What are your priorities, today, Mr. LaRouche? You are a Democratic Party candidate, the primaries will begin next year? What are the lines of force of your program for Democratic candidate?

LaRouche: Well, first of all, in terms of popular financial support, I'm the second in the United States, in terms of the numbers of supporters. The primaries are starting right now: In Washington, D.C., the first primary. And the election will be on Jan. 13. And, my base of course, is in two groups: youth, 18 to 25-year-old youth. This is where most of my campaign's supporters are coming from. It's similar, but somewhat different, to what Senator McCarthy did, back in 1968. My broad base of support, to which these organizers work, is actually among the lower 80% of family-income brackets. Which, in fact, have no representation among other candidates right now. Politics in the United States has tended to become the upper 20% of family-income brackets.

RFI: What are the outlines of your program, today? What are the priorities that you have, as a candidate?

LaRouche: Well, first of all, my action will be also international. I spend about half my time outside the United States, because the United States has to have a special role with a group of nations around the world. We need a new monetary system; that can not be done by the United States alone. For example, I would tend to agree with the direction that is occurring in Western Europe and Russia right now. I would put in the United States in that same direction, following the precedent of Franklin Roosevelt's policy toward the international relations.

I'm also very concerned with a very large-scale, basic economic infrastructure program, for employment and recovery of the economies.

RFI: Could one say of Lyndon LaRouche that there is anyone more opposed than you to the policies of the Bush Administration?

LaRouche: I don't think Bush has a policy. I think Bush is a puppet of Cheney. That is, to the war policy: And I am Cheney's enemy, and he knows it. And I am his enemy, and I know it.

RFI: So, Lyndon LaRouche, what is it that you oppose with Vice President Dick Cheney?

LaRouche: Because Cheney is a fascist!

RFI: What has he done to you?

LaRouche: Nothing to me much, yet! He would probably like to. He's spread some bad stories, and operations, but not really much. What he's done, is, he's put the world on the edge of general asymmetric nuclear warfare, and that is terrible. And he's made the United States more hated than it's ever been in its recent history.

I understand it. I think Europeans understand it. Many, unfortunately, in the United States do not yet understand that.

RFI: Have you been able to get your message out through the media in the United States, where one knows, for example, there is a certain conformism.

LaRouche: Well, the U.S. major news media, or the major media, has lost much of its power, with the changes in the nature of media. For example, major television networks are no longer as powerful as they used to be. The internet and local media have become much more significant. For example, I'm reported to get between 1 million and 2 million hits on my website monthly. So, the campaign has shifted from what people used to think campaigns were, to a new form of campaigning. And, unfortunately, many of the candidates are still playing the old game.

RFI: We're coming up on our last question, Lyndon LaRouche: Up to when will you struggle within politics in the United States?

LaRouche: I'm fighting right now! I've got a very active campaign. I've got 100 workers on the street in Washington, D.C. and we're moving to try to win the Washington primary. That primary may change politics in the United States.

RFI: Well, then, good luck.

LaRouche: Thank you.

RFI: Merci a vous.

LaRouche: Merci.