The political commemorations organized for the 80th anniversary of the Vél’d’Hiv roundup, Saturday July 16 and Sunday July 17, were the site of a violent controversy following a message published on Twitter, Saturday, by the deputy The rebellious France of the Val-de-Marne, Mathilde Panot. His tweet aroused a volley of indignant reactions in the presidential camp as well as a certain part of the left and within the New Popular, Ecological and Social Union (Nupes).
“Eighty years ago, the collaborationists of the Vichy regime organized the Vél’d’Hiv roundup. Do not forget these crimes, today more than ever, with a President of the Republic who honors Pétain and 89 RN deputies, ”wrote on Twitter on Saturday, the president of the LFI parliamentary group in the National Assembly.
80 years ago, the collaborationists of the Vichy regime organized the roundup of #VeldHiv
Do not forget these crimes, today more than ever, with a President of the Republic who honors Pétain and 89 RN deputies!— Mathilde Panot (@MathildePanot) July 16, 2022
“Marshal Pétain was a great soldier during the First World War”
The chosen one refers to a declaration by Emmanuel Macron dating from 2018, on the occasion of the centenary of the end of the First World War. The Head of State had spoken out in favor of Philippe Pétain being honored, like the other Marshals of France at the time, during the November 11 ceremony celebrating the Armistice at the Invalides, in Paris.
“Marshal Pétain was a great soldier during the First World War, it is a reality of our country. It is also what makes political life, like human nature, sometimes more complex than one might think. You may have been a great soldier in the First World War and have led to disastrous choices during the second, ”said Mr. Macron, when questioned about this choice by the press.
“I have always opposed French defeatism when it could exist, complacency with any ideology. You cannot blame me for being ambiguous on this point: I have always been absolute in this fight, ”the President of the Republic immediately specified.
Within the left and the Nupes, members dissociate
Following Mathilde Panot’s message, the Minister responsible for Transport, Clément Beaune, urged the MP to delete her tweet and to present “her apologies to France, quickly”. “Beyond Shame. We dare not believe it,” he said. reacted on the same social network. ” What a shame ! “, “Nausea”, “No limit in indecency”, still decried respectively the ministers Agnès Firmin Le Bodo, Isabelle Rome and Olivier Dussopt.
The President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, replied to Ms. Panot
“The dead are listening to you.
Do you believe they are listening to this? I only ask for the silence that the dead call for.
Shut up “#VeldHiv
https://t.co/S07z9qxrUc— Yael BRAUN-PIVET (@YaelBRAUNPIVET) July 16, 2022
” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank”> by relaying on Twitter the intervention of Robert Badinter, then president of the Constitutional Council, who had shouted down, in 1992, the members of the public who whistled François Mitterrand when he arrived at the ceremony of the 50th anniversary of the Vél ‘d’Hiv roundup. “The dead are listening to you. Do you believe they listen to this? (…) I only ask for the silence that the dead call for. Shut up, ”quoted Ms. Braun-Pivet.
“I feel bad for my France (…) which knows how to name anti-Semitism and fight it; which does not confuse everything, does not confuse destinies; who remembers, transmits, without instrumentalising, in the dignity of unity”, commented, on the left, the president of the regional council of Occitanie, Carole Delga. “When we are legitimately offended by risky and insulting equivalences, we ourselves abstain from yielding to them. So in the same way as LFI≠RN, Macron≠Pétain”, also noted the deputy of Essonne, Jérôme Guedj, member of Nupes.
When we are legitimately offended by risky and insulting equivalences, we ourselves abstain from yielding to them. So in the same way as LFI≠RN, Macron≠Pétain.
And especially on a day of commemoration and therefore of national unity, producing controversy serves the cause— Jerome Guedj (@JeromeGuedj) July 16, 2022
Sébastien Chenu, RN deputy and vice-president of the National Assembly, also joined the critics. “Excess, indecency, ignorance, La France insoumise crosses the red line more and more every day which brings it closer to the precipice”, he commented on the social network.
Excess, indecency, ignorance, the @FranceInsoumise every day crosses more the red line which brings it closer to the precipice. Fortunately, the French will never entrust the keys of the country to these extremists https://t.co/pUP3vWmICS
— Sebastien Chenu (@sebchenu) July 16, 2022