the Colombe volunteer finally reinstated, after a controversy over the RN

She said she received a call from the association after expressing her despair, on the sidelines of a meeting of the far-right political group.

The Restos du Cœur agreed to reinstate one of their volunteers while considering that her comments on the sidelines of a meeting of the National Rally, widely relayed on the networks, constituted a violation of the principle of neutrality of the association’s charter. Colombe, aged 60 and volunteer at Restos du Cœur “since 1990”was interviewed by TF1 during a far-right party meeting on May 1 in Perpignan.

“I’m in the RSA and we’re having trouble living, we can’t pay the bills, we have bailiffs, we have threats of everything”the sixty-year-old lamented, presenting herself as an unemployed professional integration advisor and volunteer at Restos du coeur. “There is no work, no factories (…). Here we have a huge rate of RN and we are all angry, we are all struggling”she added.

According to her lawyer, Jérémy Kalfon, this woman subsequently received a call from a local manager of the association asking her “to resign following her comments on May 1 which, according to her, constituted a ‘mistake’ with regard to the volunteers’ charter”. But “Colombe denies having committed any fault, the latter in fact has no active political activity, and in her comments in no way associated the image of the Restos du Cœur with the positions or action of the National Rally”wrote the lawyer in this press release.

“The Restaurants heard Colombe’s dismay”

In a statement sent to AFP, the Restos du Coeur assured for their part that“no exclusion procedure has been initiated” and that Colombe “felt pressured to resign”. In a new interview published Monday evening, the person concerned, in fact, explains to TF1 that she had submitted her resignation after receiving a call from the association. She evokes a “hurricane” in the days following the broadcast of her testimony, which she went through “shocked and stunned”.

Widely relayed on social networks, the volunteer’s video sparked numerous political reactions. “All the Doves of the country, we must not despise them, but hear them, understand them”, had notably underlined François Ruffin (LFI). The president of the RN, Marine Le Pen, declared Monday on RMC/BFMTV that the Restos du Cœur “should be ashamed of their behavior, push a woman to resign for only expressing the dismay of millions of people”.

This woman explains that she had not watched political commentary during this period. “Today, I refrain from saying anything about politics”she adds in the video published Monday evening. If I offended anyone, I apologize, but I felt like a spokesperson to say that France was suffering. That’s all.” Then she asks the association, visibly moved:“Rehire me.”