“Cut with your past”: Nicolas Sarkozy defends the presence of the RN at the march against anti-Semitism

2023-11-12 01:48:54

The former head of state wants to believe in a “good faith commitment”. While the presence of the National Rally at the great citizens’ march against anti-Semitism this Sunday continues to cause turmoil on the political scene, Nicolas Sarkozy considered “perfectly derisory any form of controversy” on the presence of “such and such such political force” at the rally, in an interview given to Sunday newspaper.

The announced presence of Marine Le Pen and the National Rally, heir to a National Front with a history marked by anti-Semitism, arouses political controversy. It is castigated by the left and embarrasses the presidential camp, Olivier Véran seeing it in particular as “indecency”, while recognizing the far-right party’s right to demonstrate, in an interview with Le Parisien.

Past anti-Semitism

“We cannot at the same time denounce the absence of the extreme left, whose anti-Semitic approach is well known, and be indignant at the presence of the National Rally which wanted to break away from its nauseating past,” says Nicolas Sarkozy with the Sunday weekly. The former head of state declares that he does not understand this almost generalized political indignation: “What do we want? That the National Rally continues in anti-Semitism wherever it frees itself from it? It’s better that he frees himself from it! »

While recognizing that “the history of the National Front (former name of the RN party)” and its founder Jean-Marie Le Pen was “unquestionably linked to anti-Semitism”, Sarkozy confides that he “does not like” to speak people who are too old (Jean-Marie Le Pen is 95 years old) and therefore incapable of defending themselves. The former tenant of the Élysée also considers that the “public upheavals of the divisions of the Le Pen family were sufficiently spectacular to not need to return to them”. He attributes to them “a priori a commitment of good faith”.

On several occasions during the interview, Nicolas Sarkozy – who rightly recalls that the National Rally “cut with its founder” (Jean-Marie Le Pen was excluded from the party in 2015) and “changed its name” – repeatedly denies any “kindness” towards this party that he has “always fought”.