A French essayist, who claims to have read mass-murderer Anders Breivik's 1,500 page manifesto, has said he believes Norway "got what it deserved."
Richard Millet, a respected figure in French literature and journalism, made his claims in new 17-page attack on multiculturalism, entitled "The Literary Elegy of Anders Breivik", described by French newspaper L'Express as a "vindictive text."
Breivik was last week sentenced to 21 years in prison for killing 77 people in a bomb attack in central Oslo and a bloody rampage at a summer camp on the island of Utoya.
Millet said he did not approve of Breivik's crimes but praised the fluency of his writing on social democracy and immigration.
He wrote: "Breivik is without doubt what Norway deserves, and what awaits our societies that won’t stop blinding themselves in denial.
“European nations are dissolving socially at the same time as they’re losing their Christian essence in favor of general relativism.”
Millet has defended his piece, telling French radio: "Multiculturalism, as it has been imported from the United States, is the worst thing possible for Europe. It creates a mosaic of ghettoes in which the nation no longer exists.
“Breivik, I believe, perceived that and responded to that question with the most monstrous reply.”
The piece, Éloge Littéraire d’Anders Breivik, claims similar massacres are likely to occur elsewhere in Europe.
The piece was published in a collection of three essays Langue Fantôme (Ghost Language) by Éditions Pierre-Guillaume de Roux.
Author Annie Ernaux told Le Monde Millet’s writing was “a dangerous political act”, but another author Jean-Marie Laclavetine told France Info that he believed it was dangerous to become “thought police" adding: "Everyone has the right to think as he wishes and write what he wants."