French President Emmanuel Macron said he would not take part in a demonstration against anti-Semitism on Sunday but would be present in his “thought”. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said she planned to attend the rally, sparking a round of rows between political parties amid a rise in anti-Semitic incidents across France.
Issued on: November 11, 2023 – 10:14 p.m
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Tens of thousands of people are expected to take part in the rally against anti-Semitism on Sunday. According to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, more than 3,000 police and gendarmes will be deployed in the French capital to maintain security during the “great citizens’ march.”
President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday he would not take part in the rally but would attend the “great civic march” in his “thought.”
“I will be there in my heart and in my mind,” Macron said after warning that anti-Semitism was on the rise again in France.
In an open letter published in the daily Le Parisien on Saturday evening, the eve of the march, Macron condemned the “unbearable resurgence of unbridled anti-Semitism” and said: “A France that our Jewish fellow citizens fear is not France .” “.
Tensions are rising in Paris, home to large Jewish and Muslim communities, after the October 7 Hamas attack, followed by a month of Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip.
France has recorded almost 12,250 anti-Semitic acts since the attack.
National Assembly Speaker Yael Braun-Pivet and Senate Speaker Gerard Larcher called on Tuesday for a “general mobilization” in the march against the rise in anti-Semitism.
They are supposed to lead the march behind a banner that reads “For the Republic, against anti-Semitism.”
Boycott march by the radical left party
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen sparked a cacophony of criticism this week over her plans to attend Sunday’s march. Critics said her Rassemblement National (RN) party had failed to shake off its anti-Semitic legacy despite its growing political legitimacy.
Le Pen’s critics see her participation as an attempt to exploit the war between Israel and Hamas to make herself more palatable to mainstream voters.
Her father, party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, was repeatedly convicted of anti-Semitic hate speech and trivialized the extent of the Holocaust. His daughter Marine – a runner-up in the last two presidential elections and a likely front-runner in 2027 – has worked to improve the party’s image by kicking out her father and changing its name from National Front to National Rally.
But the party’s current president, Jordan Bardella, said in an interview on BFM TV this week that he did not think Jean-Marie Le Pen was anti-Semitic – a remark that revived the connection between past and present.
The radical left-wing party France Unbowed (LFI) said it would boycott the event, with LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon describing the march as a meeting of “friends of unconditional support for the massacre” of Palestinians in Gaza.
Communist leader Fabien Roussel said he would “not march alongside the RN” and accused it of being descended from people who were “repeatedly convicted of anti-Semitic statements” and “collaborated” with Nazi Germany.
Government spokesman Olivier Véran said Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne would attend.
But the RN had “no place” at the demonstration, said Veran.
Increase in anti-Semitic attacks
Among the long list of recent anti-Semitic acts, Paris prosecutors are investigating an Oct. 31 incident in which buildings in the city and suburbs were daubed with dozens of Stars of David.
The graffiti, which evoked memories of the Nazi occupation of Paris in World War II and the deportation of Jews to death camps, was condemned across the political spectrum.
France says it was the target of a Russian online destabilization campaign that used automated social media accounts to stoke controversy and confusion.
Since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, triggering its latest and deadliest war, French authorities have counted more than 1,150 anti-Semitic acts. That’s almost three times more than all crimes against French Jews in 2022, according to the Interior Ministry.
In a statement released Thursday, the French foreign ministry blamed Russia, saying a Russian network of bots had fueled controversy about the stars with thousands of posts on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Bots are automated accounts programmed to imitate human users by generating messages or following users on social media, often for nefarious or malicious purposes.
“This new operation of Russian digital interference against France testifies to the persistence of an opportunistic and irresponsible strategy aimed at exploiting international crises to cause confusion and create tension in the public debate in France and in Europe,” it said Explanation.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)