A 50-year-old lawyer, Elie Korchia has chaired the Central Consistory since October 2021. With the Chief Rabbi of France, Haïm Korsia, he called on Wednesday April 13 to vote for Emmanuel Macron in the second round of the presidential election.
How did the Jewish community experience the presidential campaign?
First of all, I believe that those who think that there is a Jewish vote in France are mistaken. Citizens of the Jewish faith position themselves, in general, like other citizens. Two themes, however, are particularly dear to us. The first is civic engagement, and calling to vote is a constant. The second is to block extremist parties.
Is it in this capacity that you are calling to vote for Emmanuel Macron in the second round?
The Consistory of France is not there to give voting instructions, but it must today take a position on the basis of the programs of the candidates for the second round. The time is no longer just, as was the case in 2002 and 2017, on the Republican front to put up an ideological barrage on the far right. Today, this position of principle is less audible than before. Even if, for many Republicans, there is something shocking in having a representative of the extreme right in the second round and, for the first time, with a real possibility of winning. With, as supports, Eric Zemmour and Nicolas Dupont-Aignan.
Did Eric Zemmour’s candidacy pose a particular difficulty for voters of the Jewish faith?
His personality and his speech were able to seduce some of them, it’s a fact. But over the course of his campaign and certain controversial statements, the view of his candidacy has changed. And it is no coincidence that, in the end, his score collapsed compared to the polls at the start.
Eric Zemmour surfed on a number of issues, traumas of French Jews that are not fantasized, but very real. He used, sometimes hijacked and exploited, these issues that greatly worry Jewish citizens, affected, over the past twenty years, by terrible acts that have deeply, intimately affected them. Like the death of Jeremie Cohen. The drama of this young man who is assaulted, assaulted in the middle of the street by several people and who, in his flight, is fatally hit by a tram, touched us a lot. Is there also an anti-Semitic dimension? We will see what the current investigation will yield, I remain of course very vigilant on this subject, with regard to the previous cases that we have been able to know.
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