“Nothing should divide us.” Emmanuel Macron launched a message of “unity” on Saturday, November 11, in the name of French values of “universalism” before Sunday’s march against anti-Semitism, during which he will be present “in thought.”
In a Letter to the French published in Le Parisien, the head of state judges that “a France where our Jewish fellow citizens are afraid is not France”. He deplores “the unbearable resurgence of unbridled anti-Semitism” regarding the resurgence of anti-Semitic acts in the country since the start of the war in the Middle East triggered by the Hamas massacres in Israel on October 7.
“Whether it is religious, social, identity-based or racial, anti-Semitism is always as Émile Zola presented it: odious,” wrote the head of state on the eve of a “great civic march” which, according to him, , must show a France “united behind its values, its universalism”.
Seeing “a reason for hope” in the marches organized on Sunday “for the Republic, against anti-Semitism, for the release of hostages and for peace”, he believes that they “will express what is the very essence of French project: the refusal of the assignment for difference. The defense of universalism.
“Never divide us”
“This fight against anti-Semitism must never divide us or ever lead to pitting some of our compatriots against others. In our history, anti-Semitism was always the prelude to other hatreds and racism,” he insists.
The head of state hesitated for a long time to demonstrate on Sunday but will ultimately be present “in his heart and in his thoughts”. He had indicated earlier in the day that he saw “a lot of confusion” and political “settling.”
On the sidelines of the 1918 Armistice commemorations, he responded to a woman introducing herself as a great-granddaughter of Captain Dreyfus, who told him she was “disappointed” by his absence at the demonstration. “I have never been to a demonstration of any kind,” he justified, wanting “to be firm on values” and “to act, otherwise I can demonstrate every week.”
Anti-Semitic acts have increased in France since October 7: “three times more acts of hatred against our Jewish compatriots in a few weeks than during the entire last year,” recalls Emmanuel Macron in his Letter.
The president had already warned against any confusion between “the rejection of Muslims and the support of Jews”, targeting the extreme right, whose announced presence at the march arouses embarrassment on the left and in the majority given its history .
The participation of the National Rally (far right), “a political party created by the heirs of Vichy”, is “not unity but indecency”, judges government spokesperson Olivier Véran in Le Parisian. The leader of RN deputies, Marine Le Pen, considers that the march should “bring together” the French around the rejection of both anti-Semitism and “Islamist fundamentalism which is a totalitarian ideology”.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s France Insoumise, accused of ambiguities on anti-Semitism, is boycotting the demonstration due to the presence of the RN, even if Insoumis should line up behind other initiatives on Sunday, in Paris or in province.
The president of the Republicans (right) Eric Ciotti, for his part, asked Emmanuel Macron to “clarify the reasons” which led him not to come on Sunday, believing that “at the same time is definitely no longer practicable”. .