When the far right denounces, in defiance of reality, the installation of a “migrant camp” in a castle

2024-03-09 04:50:11
The castle of Thiverval-Grignon (Yvelines), April 4, 2016. KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / AFP

Migrants in a 17th century castle. The symbol was too tempting, in the ranks of the extreme right, not to seize it. Even if it means largely distorting reality. On February 27, on the social network X, Marion Maréchal, head of the Reconquest party list! in the European elections, denounced the misappropriation of a “jewel of our heritage”nestled “in the land of the kings of France and the Capetian monarchy”thanks to a “African migrant camp” arrived from Mayotte. On February 26, it was Jordan Bardella, the president and candidate for the European elections of the National Rally (RN), who had gone crazy, also on : “Enter clandestinely in Mayotte, you can be repatriated to mainland France and housed in a 17th century castle! »

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In reality, in Thiverval-Grignon (Yvelines), on the former AgroParisTech site, it is not the castle, but disused student residences which served, from February 26, as a reception area for 195 people, mainly families from Burundi, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. All had previously obtained asylum in Mayotte, where they lived in a camp, a precarious presence which generated strong tensions within the local population.

Sunday March 3, a group of a few dozen far-right activists was also removed by police after briefly entering the site during the day. They displayed a banner, threw smoke bombs and sang racist chants, recalling a first episode that occurred a year ago, in February 2023. Reconquest! had demonstrated in front of the castle to denounce, this time, the reception of homeless migrants as part of the Great Cold Plan.

“It’s an exemplary operation”

At the Ministry of the Interior, the reception of refugees from Mayotte on the site would, according to some, have raised eyebrows. “The symbol is catastrophic. [Le ministre de l’intérieur, Gérald] Darmanin asked that they leave much faster”, says an executive from Place Beauvau, on condition of anonymity. The families were directed to different sites in the provinces. When requested, neither the prefecture of Ile-de-France nor the general directorate of foreigners in France, which piloted the operation, responded to our requests.

In fact, the association to which the care of the refugees was entrusted, Emmaüs Solidarité, had planned a stay for the beneficiaries for three months before this was reduced to three weeks by the public authorities. “There were 80 departures on February 29, then 51 departures on March 7, and there are 28 people left today”lists Lotfi Ouanezar, the director of Emmaüs Solidarité, without making the link with the far-right protests.

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