Dominique Venner, a notable far-right French historian, shot himself in the head at the altar of the Notre Dame cathedral today, killing himself in front of a crowd of tourists to protest gay marriage, which was legalized in France last weekend.

The 78-year-old Venner, a prolific essayist for much of his life, was also a strict Catholic who frequently inveighed against gays and Islamists, who he believed were coming to wipe out French culture. In a blog post dated today—translated with the help of senilezombiegrouchomarx—Venner argued that more drastic measures were necessary to combat same-sex marriage since peaceful protests didn't work.

"It certainly will require new, spectacular and symbolic gesture to shake the sleepiness, shaking anesthetized consciousness and awaken the memory of our origins," he wrote. "We are entering a time when words must be authenticated by acts."

Witnesses say Venner entered the cathedral and placed a sealed envelope on the altar before shooting himself through the mouth with a handgun. His final blog post can be read in its entirety below.

The protestors on the 26th of May will have reason to vent their impatience and anger. An odious law, once passed, can always be repealed.

I have just finished listening to an Algerian blogger: “In any case”, he said, “in fifteen years Islamists will be in power and will strike down the law”. Not to satisfy us, lest we doubt, but because it is against Sharia.

It is the single common point, albeit superficial, between the European culture (which respects women) and Islam (which does not). The preemptive statement by this Algerian blogger sends chills down the spine. The consequences of such a development would be as great and catastrophic as those of the Taubira Law.

We must recognize the real possibility of France falling under Islamic rule. Over the past 40 years, politicians and successive governments from all parties (excepting the Front Nationale), as well as big business and the Church, have actively worked towards, and accelerated, Afro-Maghreb immigration by all means.

For a long time, great writers have sounded the alarm, starting with Jean Raspail in his prophetic Camp of Saints (Robert Laffont). The new edition has set printing records.

The protestors on the 26th of May cannot ignore this reality. Their fight cannot confine itself to the issue of gay marriage. The “Great Replacement” of the French and European populations, decried by writer Renaud Camus, is a peril just as significant for the future.

Organizing peaceful demonstrations will not suffice to stem the tide. We must first, as Renan would say, engineer a veritable “intellectual and moral” reform movement. Such a movement must allow us first to re-appropriate out forgotten French and European identity. The need for such a movement is still not widely acknowledged.

New actions, both spectacular and symbolic, are needed to shake us from our sleep-like stupor and reawaken our sense of tradition. We are entering into a time when talk must be supported by actions.

We must also remember what Heidegger formulated brilliantly in Being and Time: that the essence of man is not to be found in some “other world”, but in his very existence. It is here and now, in these last moments, that our destiny in is play. These final moments are as important as the rest of one’s life. That is why one must uphold their ideals to the very last second. Only in deciding for one’s self and seizing destiny can one vanquish nothingness. There is no way to escape this fact. In this life, we have two options: to uphold our ideals or to be nothing.