“I totally assume”, or almost. Pascal Rifflart, candidate for the majority in the next legislative elections, presented himself in his campaign leaflet as a “French stock”. An unusual expression but above all drawn from the vocabulary of the extreme right. “French native, I have a deep attachment to my country, to its lands, to its inhabitants and to its democratic functioning”, had thus explained the local elected official in his profession of faith.
The use of this expression has not gone unnoticed. First of all relayed by an elected representative from the left on Twitter, Pascal Rifflart’s leaflet was even the subject of an article published on the far-right site bearing the same name, “Fdesouche”. Contacted by France Inter, the candidate Ensemble says “assume” and explains that he was not aware of the existence of this site, nor of the controversy linked to this expression. Why did you use it? This doctor by profession and elected Grand Amiens evokes a “concern for balance” with his substitute Farida Andasmas.
“We have something else to do than semantics”
The latter “wanted to put that she was french military girl harki and for the sake of balance, I put that I was native French to show how multiple France is, “he underlined, ensuring” to fully assume what is written “. “You have to talk to people the way they talk. What does a connotation actually mean? Just because a group grabs it doesn’t mean it can’t be used. We have something else to do than semantics, ”he further justified to the radio.
“A stump is what it means: a stump. You have to put the terms in their context, I used them to talk about Europe, ”he insisted again to BFMTV, tackling his opponent Nupe in the Somme, François Ruffin. “Monsieur Ruffin is not afraid of excess when he says ‘bastard of holland’ (to qualify Emmanuel Macron). He allows himself a bit of everything, so me too, ”he defends himself to the chain. Still, the controversy seems to have already affected Pascal Riffart. Referring to “misunderstood words”, the elected official indicated this Wednesday on Twitter that the expression would not finally appear “in the profession of faith that each of the voters of the 1st district will receive” of the Somme.
His new leaflet was thus modified and put online, on Twitter without the polemical expression. “The inhabitants of the 1st district of the Somme are suffering. They have nothing to do with a semantic debate far from their daily concerns and which is a pretext for our opponents who do not talk about the real subjects, ”still tried to justify the elected official.