The march against anti-Semitism planned in Paris on Sunday at the call of the presidents of the National Assembly and the Senate, and in which the National Rally (RN) intends to participate, continues to create turmoil on the chessboard policy.
Wednesday morning, Marine Le Pen called, on RTL, “all [the] members and [the] voters [of the RN] to come and join this march”. “It is time for the French people (…) to express their absolutely total rejection of the spectacular increase in visible acts (…) of anti-Semitism,” she added. Eric Zemmour, president of Reconquête!, and Marion Maréchal, head of the party’s list for the European elections, indicated that they would also participate in the march.
Announcements of the participation of the far right triggered cascading reactions. “French justice condemned Jean-Marie Le Pen for anti-Semitism; in this sense, the RN has no place in this demonstration”, affirmed the government spokesperson, Olivier Véran, who also “deplored that the president of the RN [Jordan Bardella] is incapable of cutting with the roots anti-Semitism” of his party, denying the anti-Semitism of its founder. During the report of the council of ministers, Mr. Véran called for “appeasement and national unity” in order to combat “all forms of anti-Semitism, all forms of violence”.
In the same line, Emmanuel Macron denounced those who “claim to support our compatriots of the Jewish faith by confusing the rejection of Muslims and the support of Jews, by refusing, the very same ones, to clearly condemn their past position and all the definitive words yesterday”, in an allusion to the extreme right.
Wednesday evening, Yaël Braun-Pivet and Gérard Larcher, president and president respectively of the National Assembly and the Senate, announced on TF1 that they “will march at the head of this procession” but “not next to the National Rally”. “It’s not a political gathering, it’s not a meeting,” insisted Ms. Braun-Pivet, calling for “not to sully the message” of this march “with sterile polemics.” The two elected officials declared that a “single banner at the head of the procession”, on which “For the Republic, against anti-Semitism” will be written, will be authorized.
Mr. Véran announced that the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, will participate in the demonstration, as will several members of the government. On the other hand, Emmanuel Macron’s decision to participate or not is not yet known. On Wednesday, the head of state did not take advantage of his speech to the Grand Orient de France, the main French denomination of Freemasons, to discuss Sunday’s march. However, he noted that “anti-Semitism is resurfacing”, “in words and on walls”.
“Distinguish between progressives and far-right forces”
The question of whether or not to participate in the march also agitated the left on Wednesday. La France insoumise (LFI) and its deputies declared that they would not go to the demonstration, due to the planned participation of the RN. “Fighting against anti-Semitism and against all forms of racism is impractical alongside a party which finds its origins in the history of collaboration with Nazism”, affirms the movement in a press release, believing that “the ambiguity of the objectives” of this demonstration “allows the most unbearable support”
“Our country needs initiatives that unify our people,” continues the left-wing formation, deeming it “necessary to come together around the objectives of peace to clearly demand a ceasefire and the release of hostages” held by Hamas since his deadly attack on October 7. Tuesday evening, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the movement, described in a tweet this march as a “meeting” of “friends of unconditional support for the massacre” committed according to him by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip.
At the beginning of the afternoon, the Socialist Party (PS), the Communist Party (PCF) and Les Ecologistes published a joint press release to “broadly call on citizens” to participate in the march. The left-wing parties propose to create “a republican cordon” to “distinguish in the demonstration a procession bringing together all the republicans and progressives on the one hand and the National Rally and the far-right forces on the other hand”. PS, PCF and Ecologists do not “recognize any legitimacy” for the latter “to demonstrate against anti-Semitism”.
The three parties finally asked Yaël Braun-Pivet and Gérard Larcher “to publicly declare that far-right forces are not welcome”.
