This was to be just one meeting among a hundred others scheduled on the agenda of the Summer Days of Europe-Ecology-The Greens (EELV), which are being held from August 24 to 27 in Le Havre. Concentrating most of the media attention of this political return, the disputed invitation of the rapper Médine, accused of anti-Semitism after he described the essayist Rachel Khan, Jewish and granddaughter of deportees, of “resKHANpée” in a tweet in early August, overshadowed the launch of the event on Thursday. Much to the chagrin of some party members. “[We] looked for the buzz and [we] got it in the worst possible way,” European election lead Marie Toussaint told Franceinfo on Wednesday.
Hundreds of environmental activists awaited the arrival of Le Havre in one of the concrete halls of the Carré des docks for his expected exchange with the national secretary of the party, Marine Tondelier. The rapper was given a standing ovation upon his arrival on stage by the audience of activists, denser than during the other thematic discussions proposed that day, where in particular the “rebellious” deputies Raquel Garrido, François Ruffin and Alexis Corbière paraded.
Invited for a forty-five-minute text explanation on the theme of “the force of culture against the culture of force”, Médine presented himself as a rapper engaged for several years in a political process aimed at “transgressing those borders that are erected in our minds and take so long to disappear”. Just before addressing the controversy that has surrounded him since the beginning of the month.
“Shield Raising”
“I can’t ignore the three weeks that stirred up the news and got us to our hearts. This controversy began with my invitation to these Summer Days (…) which, by its simple fact, created an outcry from the far right, from the right and even from part of Macronie, even before this clumsiness on my part,” he argued.
Defending himself from any anti-Semitism, he again regretted his tweet, as he has stated in various interviews granted to the press in recent days. “I was responding to an insult, an attack, I overreacted and I had this awkwardness of using the word ‘survivor,'” he said, reiterating: “I had absolutely not measured the load emotional and historical of the word. »
Referring to “the hell lived with [s]a family”, the rapper defended his fight against the far right and his local commitment in Le Havre. “It’s obvious, you’re welcome here,” replied Marine Tondelier on stage. The national secretary of EELV led a conciliatory exchange with the artist around several passages of his texts, letting him unfold his explanations. Before going on stage, Médine met with EELV’s “LBGTQI commission” as well as its working group against anti-Semitism – behind closed doors.
“Getting Out of Ambiguity”
Despite the bad publicity that the rapper’s coming to these summer days has generated for almost three weeks, the meeting had been maintained by mutual agreement between the artist and the executive office of EELV, on the condition that he reconsiders this error, thing done. “Even if the controversy has focused attention on Medina, something useful can come out of this exchange which will reduce anti-Semitism in this country,” said Marine Tondelier during her opening speech. . The mayor of Grenoble, Eric Piolle, said he was convinced by the exercise, saying that with his latest statements, “Médine has made a very clear decision by showing itself in the fight against anti-Semitism and has managed to get out of its ambiguity”.
In recent days, several dissenting voices have been expressed within EELV. On Monday, the mayors of Bordeaux, Pierre Hurmic, and Strasbourg, Jeanne Barseghian, had canceled their attendance at summer universities. Others, like MEP Karima Delli, chose to boycott the swap. Retained by a meeting with a Ukrainian delegation, Marie Toussaint did not attend the meeting with the rapper, just like the deputy Sandrine Rousseau, who had pleaded for it to take place, but who was busy at a training workshop for militants.
As for Yannick Jadot, EELV presidential candidate, running for the senatorial in Paris, he chose not to attend this speech, believing that his party has “such a need to convince on subjects essential, that such a controversy, predictable, could have been avoided”, by simply not inviting Medina from the start, pinned down for problematic gestures and remarks in the past.
In Le Havre, where nearly two thousand people are expected until Saturday, environmentalists hope to be able to turn the page and focus “on everything else, the essentials” at the time of this political return, including “the environmental crisis, the social crisis, the States General of Ecology, the European elections”, insists Marine Tondelier. Medina, he has not finished animating the political return to the left. He is expected in Valence on Saturday to debate with the leader of the “rebellious” deputies, Mathilde Panot, before performing on stage. While LFI shows him full support, the reception promises to be more unanimous.