The French president, Emmanuel Macron, stated this Saturday, November 11, that he will not participate in the march this Sunday against anti-Semitism, but said he would be present with “his thoughts” and his “heart.” The march has generated controversy in France after far-right leader Marine Le Pen announced that she plans to attend the demonstration. Le Pen’s attendance set off a round of disputes between political parties amid a rise in pro-Palestinian demonstrations and anti-Semitic incidents across France.
Tens of thousands of people are expected to participate in the demonstration in France, this Sunday, November 12, against anti-Semitism. More than 3,000 police and gendarmes will be deployed in the French capital to maintain security at the “great civic march”, according to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.
President Emmanuel Macron said Saturday that he would not attend the rally but would be present with his “heart and thoughts.”
“I will be there with my heart and my thoughts,” Macron said, after warning that anti-Semitism was rising again in France.
In an open letter published in the French newspaper Le Parisien On Saturday night, on the eve of the march, Macron condemned the “unbearable resurgence of rampant anti-Semitism” and stated that “a France in which fellow Jews are afraid is not France.”
Tensions have risen in Paris, home to large Jewish and Muslim communities, following the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, followed by a month of Israeli bombings on the Gaza Strip.
France has recorded nearly 12,250 anti-Semitic acts since the attack.
Yael Braun-Pivet, president of the National Assembly, and Gerard Larcher, president of the Senate, called on Tuesday, November 7, for a “general mobilization” in the march against anti-Semitism. They will lead the march with a banner that reads: “For the Republic, against anti-Semitism.”
Disagreements on the left over the march
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen sparked criticism this week over her plans to attend Sunday’s march. Her detractors claim that her party, the National Rally (RN), has failed to shake off her anti-Semitic heritage despite her growing political legitimacy.
Le Pen’s critics see her attendance as an attempt to take advantage of the war between Israel and Hamas to make herself more acceptable to voters.
The party’s founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, his father, was repeatedly convicted of inciting anti-Semitic hatred and downplayed the scope of the Holocaust. Her daughter, Marine – second in the last two presidential elections and likely a leading candidate in 2027 – has worked to clean up the party’s image, removing her father and changing its name from the National Front to the National Rally.
But the party’s current president, Jordan Bardella, said in an interview on BFM TV this week that he does not believe Jean-Marie Le Pen is anti-Semitic, a comment that rekindled the link between past and present.
The far-left France Insoumise (LFI) party said it would boycott the event and its leader, Jean-Luc Melenchon, described the march as a meeting of “friends of unconditional support for the massacre” of Palestinians in Gaza.
Furthermore, communist leader Fabien Roussel said he “would not march alongside” RN, accusing it of being descended from people who were “repeatedly condemned for anti-Semitic comments” and who “collaborated” with Nazi Germany.
Government spokesman Olivier Véran said Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne would attend.
Increase in anti-Semitic attacks
Among the long list of recent anti-Semitic acts, the Paris Prosecutor’s Office is investigating an incident that occurred on October 31, in which dozens of Stars of David were painted on buildings in the city and suburbs.
The graffiti, which recalled the Nazi occupation of Paris during World War II and the deportation of Jews to extermination camps, was condemned across the political spectrum.
France claims to have been the target of a Russian online destabilization campaign that used automated social media accounts to stir up controversy and confusion.
Since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, triggering its latest and deadliest war, French authorities have recorded more than 1,150 anti-Semitic acts. That is almost three times more than all acts against French Jews in 2022, the Interior Ministry says.
In a statement released Thursday, France’s Foreign Ministry blamed Russia, saying a Russian botnet fueled the star controversy with thousands of messages on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Bots are automated accounts programmed to imitate human users by generating messages or following users on social media, often for nefarious or malicious purposes.
“This new Russian digital interference operation against France testifies to the persistence of an opportunistic and irresponsible strategy aimed at exploiting international crises to sow confusion and create tensions in public debate in France and Europe,” the statement said.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrations
On the other hand, despite the restriction of the Ministry of the Interior, some parliamentarians from the French left joined the almost 16,000 people who marched in favor of the Palestinian cause in Paris on November 11.
Carrying Palestinian flags and posters calling for an immediate ceasefire to hostilities, protesters advanced through the streets surrounding Republic Square and Nation Square.
The banner that opened the demonstration read: “stop the massacre in Gaza and the West Bank. Immediate ceasefire.”
Pro-Palestinian demonstrations were almost completely prohibited in the first days of the conflict, due to a directive from Darmanin, which stated that there was a risk of disruption of public order. But, on October 18, the Council of State ordered to evaluate the potential risk on a case-by-case basis.
With AFP, AP and France24
Adapted from its English original
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