11/12/2023 7:59 pm (current 11/12/2023 7:59 pm)
Numerous politicians also participated in demonstrations at national level ©APA/AFP
In France, tens of thousands of people took to the streets on Sunday against the rise of anti-Semitism in the country, including numerous politicians. According to the government headquarters in Matignon, more than 30 ministers were present at the nationwide demonstrations, including more than 20 in Paris, including Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, whose Jewish father was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Former presidents François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy were also present, as were former heads of government. The French head of state, Emmanuel Macron, did not participate in the rally in Paris. He spoke in an open letter to the French on Saturday.
According to media reports, a total of 70 events took place across the country. In Paris, 105 thousand people participated, as reported by broadcasters BFMTV and TF1, citing the city hall. According to media reports, up to 3,000 participants were counted in Lyon and Nice. It is said that between 5,000 and 7,000 people took to the streets in Strasbourg. According to the Ministry of the Interior, more than 3,000 security forces have been deployed in Paris alone.
Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party also participated in the demonstration, initiated by the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, and the President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher.
Rassemblement National’s participation caused controversy in advance. In protest, the left-wing party “La France insoumise” (LFI) stayed away from the demonstration in Paris and organized a wreath-laying ceremony at the Vélodrome d’Hiver on Sunday morning, which was interrupted by Jewish protesters.
The largest mass arrest of Jews in France occurred in the former cycling hall in July 1942. Since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, controversy has increased over the political position of the LFI, which rejects the designation of Hamas as an organization terrorist.
In a letter published on Saturday in the newspaper Le Parisien, Macron warned of division in the country and called on the French to defend themselves against the “unbearable resurgence of rampant anti-Semitism”. “A France in which the French are afraid because of their religion or origin is not France,” he says. According to Macron, more than a thousand anti-Semitic acts were committed in the last month – three times more acts of hate than in the entirety of last year.