Days after the double cancellation of the Palestine conference in Lille by the leader of La France insoumise (LFI) and the “rebellious” European candidate Rima Hassan, Jean-Luc Mélenchon spoke to an audience of students devoted to his cause on Monday, April 22, at Sciences Po Paris.
In a packed amphitheater where he was applauded on numerous occasions, especially when he spoke about the situation in Gaza, the three-time presidential candidate greeted “open and respectful approach of this facility”condemning on the contrary you “who succumbed to the pressure” AND “dropped to their knees”.
Link to his conference canceled last Thursday in Lille University. The “rebels” then wanted to move the event to a private room, but that too was canceled, this time by the northern prefecture. “The enemy is not just the extreme right (…), but the immense chain of cowardice of those who gave up before they started fighting.”claimed the 72-year-old tribune, calling on “break the chain of legal and move into the chain of legitimate”.
Mr. Mélenchon also returned to subpoena the police for “apology for terrorism” European candidate Rima Hassan, seventh on the “rebellious” list for the June 9 election. “There seems to be a whole list of people who would be prosecuted for advocating terrorism. Here is now an accusation that did not even begin at the beginning of the slightest demonstration.”, he assured. For her part, Rima Hassan announced that she will attend Wednesday’s conference at Sciences Po Saint-Germain-en-Laye on “Palestine and Gaza”.
The founder of the radical left movement, who has made the termination of the war in Gaza a central theme of his party’s campaign for the European elections in June, continues his tour of universities that began a few weeks ago, which has already brought him to Nantes in Créteil. , Nanterre and even Clermont-Ferrand.
But last week, when he was due to hold a conference on the situation in the Middle East at the University of Lille, the event was cancelled. The university announced in a press release that the conditions were not “more united to guarantee the calmness of the debates” because of the rise “As regards” international tension afterwards “the military escalation that took place on April 13-14 in the Middle East”in connection with the unprecedented drone and missile attack launched by Iran against Israel.
Fabien Roussel judges Jean-Luc Mélenchon “discredited” and “indefensible”
“I feel sorry for the university president because what he did is shameful”then launched the leader of the “rebels” and criticized “cowards who are unable to defend freedom”. During the rally called by the LFI on Thursday evening in the public square of Lille, in response to the double ban of this conference, Jean-Luc Mélenchon then mentioned in particular Adolf Eichmann, responsible for the logistics of the final solution, and during his speech he seemed to compare the president of the university in Lille to a Nazi war criminal.
“I did nothing,” Eichmann said. “I only obeyed the laws as they were in my country. So they say they follow the law and carry out immoral measures that are not justified by anything or anyone.”, he stated. The “rebellious” leader then justified himself by citing the book on Friday The beginnings of totality (1951), philosopher Hannah Arendt, to explain that the president of the university had “behaved according to this logic of promoting evil”.
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Statements that provoked numerous reactions, including from the left. Communist Party leader Fabien Roussel speculated on Monday on BFM-TV/RMC that Mr. Mélenchon was “discredited” after these words “indefensible”. Mr. Roussel added that he ” born (with) in Jean-Luc Mélenchon it is not found at all, because his exaggerated remarks discredit everything else”. The PCF boss himself was likened to collaborator Jacques Doriot a few months ago by MP Sophia Chikira, a member of the “rebellious” leader’s close guard.
Incidents at Sciences Po Paris in March
On March 12, Sciences Po Paris also experienced incidents related to the war in Gaza as part of the day of mobilization of European universities for Palestine. About three hundred students filled the amphitheater “end genocidal war and colonization in Palestine”. During this unannounced event, a student member of the Union of Jewish Students of France (UEJF) was denied entry to the amphitheater. Versions differed on the reasons for this refusal, but the UEJF accused the organizers of making anti-Semitic remarks towards the student. Allegations that Sciences Po’s Palestine Committee refutes.
These facts caused real political outrage, as did Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and Higher Education Minister Sylvie Retailleau’s surprise visit to Mr. Attal’s school board. “a drift associated with an active and dangerous minority at Sciences Po” and confirming: “The fish is rotting from the head.” » The organization promised it would “unyielding” regarding antisemitism.