The Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, confirmed that she will participate in this gathering. Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party, for its part, announced that it would not respond to the invitation from the presidents of the Senate and the National Assembly, while Marine Le Pen promised the presence of all elected officials of the RN.
Instead of bringing together the political class, the “great civic march” against anti-Semitism planned for Sunday in Paris turns into controversy, after the announcement, Wednesday, November 8, of the refusal of La France insoumise to participate. To motivate this choice, the party denounces in particular the presence in the procession of the National Rally, confirmed by Marine Le Pen on Wednesday, and also denounced by the rest of the left. Launched Tuesday by the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet (Renaissance), and the President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher (Les Républicains), the call to parade “beyond differences and divergences” comes up against divisions within the political class.
Franceinfo takes stock of the different positions regarding this march, organized in a context of an increase in anti-Semitic acts in France since the Hamas attacks and the start of Israeli strikes in Gaza.
Enthusiastic Republicans
As soon as the march was announced on Tuesday, Eric Ciotti, the president of the Republicans, announced that he would take part in the rally, decided in particular by a member of his party, Gérard Larcher. “I will be present at this march, all Republicans must demonstrate their desire to oppose with the greatest energy this resurgence, this rise of totally unbearable anti-Semitism,” he declared to the press in the Assembly. In a tweet On Wednesday, he denounced the position held by La France insoumise, ensuring that “Mr. Mélenchon and his friends will once again shine through their culpable absence.”
The RN and Reconqueste confirm their presence
National Rally MP Marine Le Pen confirmed her presence, as well as that of the party president: “Of course I will participate, Jordan Bardella will be there, all of our elected officials will be there”she declared on RTL on Wednesday. “I call on all of our members and voters to come and join this march,” added the former far-right presidential candidate, judging that‘”it is time for the French people (…) to express their absolutely total rejection of the spectacular increase in visible acts of anti-Semitism.”
“Eric Zemmour and Marion Maréchal are present at the march against anti-Semitism organized on Sunday”also announced their party, Reconquest, onadding that the executive office of the far-right party would also be present.
The majority on the initiative, but embarrassed by the RN
The choice to organize this march, supported in particular by the Renaissance President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, immediately convinced those responsible for the executive and the majority, reports franceinfo, citing the entourage of the elected official. . Government spokesperson Olivier Véran confirmed that Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne would be present on Sunday. We do not yet know the intentions of the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron.
But the presence of the RN questions the presidential camp. The secretary general of Renaissance, Stéphane Séjourné, called “solemnly the organizers, as well as the political parties which will participate, not to be complicit in the trivialization of a party founded by anti-Semites”in reference to the National Front, the ancestor of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally.
“In my opinion, the National Rally has no place in this demonstration”commented Olivier Véran on Wednesday, while recalling that “it is a public event in which everyone is free, in conscience, to participate”.
The PCF will march, but “not alongside” the RN
“I will not march alongside” of the National Rally, reacted the national secretary of the Communist Party, Fabien Roussel, without excluding his presence in the street on Sunday. “Maybe we’ll find somewhere else.” with the other left forces, he declared, on the “4 Vérités” set on France 2.
The far-right party “has no place in such a gathering”, insisted the communist leader, recalling the history of the National Front, ancestor of the RN, founded by “men who collaborated” with Nazi Germany and whose leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, was “convicted several times for anti-Semitic remarks.”
Environmentalists will march, but call to exclude the RN
“Ecologists have always been present at marches against anti-Semitism”and that of Sunday “will be no exception”writes the party in a press release shared by its national secretary, Marine Tondelier, on. The Ecologists affirm that they will discuss with the PS and the PCF the “concrete modalities of [leur] presence”.
The party also asks Gérard Larcher and Yaël Braun-Pivet to “to say publicly that Reconquest and the RN are not welcome” to the march they organize, and qualify as “major historical mistake” a possible presence of the two far-left groups.
The PS calls on “all French people” to demonstrate
The Socialist Party welcomed the initiative and called “all French people, whatever their position on the war in the Middle East, to join the demonstration“, in a press release published on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday on. The PS describes it as“illegitimate” the presence of the RN, “in view of his identity, his positions and the comments made” by the president of the party, Jordan Bardella, who declared on Sunday that he did not believe “that Jean-Marie Le Pen was anti-Semitic”.
“It is [le premier secrétaire] Olivier Faure who had the idea on Sunday in an interview on Radio J that we needed to take a big march against anti-Semitism”, claimed socialist deputy Philippe Brun on Tuesday on franceinfo. The boss of the PS had also called for “take a common initiative expressing our total rejection of anti-Semitism”in a letter sent Monday to all parties, with the exception of the RN.
LFI “will not participate” in the march, rejected by Mélenchon
“Fighting against anti-Semitism and against all forms of racism is impractical alongside a party which finds its origins in the history of collaboration with Nazism”says La France insoumise in a press release on social networks, Wednesday. The radical left party announces that it will not participate in the march, which it denounces “ambiguity of objectives”. “Our country needs initiatives that unify our people. It needs to combat all forms of racism and anti-Semitism,” the text continues.
As of Tuesday evening, Jean-Luc Mélenchon had rejected, in a message onThis “appointment” of the “friends of unconditional support for the massacre”, in reference to Israeli bombings on Gaza. Comments which triggered a new controversy against the former candidate for the presidential election.