Emmanuel Macron condemns “with the greatest firmness” the blockades at Sciences Po and in universities of pro-Palestinian demonstrators, actions which “prevent debate”, he judges in an interview with La Provence and La Tribune Dimanche published on Saturday May 4. “I understand very well that what is happening today, particularly in Gaza, is upsetting – France is also calling for an immediate ceasefire – but preventing debate has never helped resolve a conflict », underlines the head of state.
Emmanuel Macron finds it “completely legitimate and even healthy and reassuring that our youth can say that international news affects them and that they debate it”, but “to order an establishment to have this or that policy by force and blocking, preventing other students from accessing an amphitheater on the pretext that they are Jewish, this is not the Republic,” he insists.
The president is therefore “favorable” to the evacuation by the police of blocked universities “at the request of the establishments”. According to him, students who blockade establishments are “politicized. Some groups, such as La France insoumise, considered that this was a relevant way of waging the fight. It is simply counterproductive and unacceptable that, in the name of their struggles, they prevent debate,” he says.
The police evacuated pro-Palestinian activists from Sciences Po Paris on Friday, quickly putting an end to the occupation of the prestigious establishment. Several gatherings and blockades have taken place in recent days on Sciences Po sites and in universities, leading in some cases to the intervention of the police, echoing an ongoing mobilization on several campuses in the United States.
The RN “riddled with inconsistencies”
In this same interview, Emmanuel Macron hopes that the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, will “engage as much as possible in the [European] campaign by holding debates, meetings, going into the field. This is what I asked him, as also of the entire government.”
The head of state had already privately asked Gabriel Attal to become more involved in the campaign last week, asking him in particular, according to a close friend, to agree to debate against the candidate of the National Rally (RN), Jordan Bardella. This invitation comes a little over a month before the election, while the head of the majority list, Valérie Hayer, is struggling in the polls, closely followed by the Socialist Party-Public Square candidate, Raphaël Glucksmann.
Asked about the action of the head of government, appointed four months ago, Emmanuel Macron underlines that he is committed “to all the projects on which [he] asked [him] to move forward”. “He is in action, in combat with the qualities that are his, that I know him to be and for which I decided to appoint him to this position,” he said.
Why is the RN at such a high level? “He is high because he does not govern and he says nothing”, because he “adapts to the spirit of the moment and to the polls”, for example not saying “any more” about the exit of the euro, replies the president. “They are riddled with inconsistencies. They change their faces constantly. One day Frexit. Another is maintaining it in the Union,” he says. “Aggregating anger is never proposing a program or designing a future,” he asserts again.
Asked about the possible national conclusions that he could draw from the election, while the RN has repeatedly requested a dissolution if it wins the elections, Mr. Macron evacuates: “it is the election of European deputies. The conclusion will therefore be European first. “What matters to me is that we have the most ambitious European agenda possible because we need it,” he said, promising to “get involved.”
