The leader of the municipal opposition had declared that the polemicist asked the right questions for 70 to 80% of the party’s militants.
The LR president of the “Right, center and independent” group of the Lyon city council, Étienne Blanc, announced on Friday that he was terminating his functions in this group, as requested by his running mates, after comments on Eric Zemmour and the Vichy regime. “I do not intend to allow a climate of mistrust to persist within my group. I am therefore immediately putting an end to my function as president ”, he said in a statement.
His decision follows a statement released by two of the main elected officials of the municipal right, Pascal Blache, mayor (DVD) of the 6th arrondissement, and Pierre Olivier, mayor (LR) of the 2nd, affirming that his statements to the JDD were “condemned to unanimity ”within the group.
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In an interview published on Sunday, Mr. Blanc stated in particular that for “70 to 80%” LR activists, Eric Zemmour asks the right questions: “And opposite, you have officials who say that Zemmour hysterizes the debate (…) There is a hiatus, and if this is not resolved at the time of the choice of the candidates, we do not know what can be pass”. Regarding the Vichy regime’s policy towards the Jews, he also said: “Didn’t the signing of the armistice give the Jews the means of protection which, for two years, allowed them to flee the Nazi regime?” I can’t answer. ”
In his press release Friday, Mr. Blanc returns to this sentence by arguing that he is not a “historian”. And ensures that “throughout (his) political life”, he has “Expressed rejection of anti-Semitism”. “This controversy bothers me”, he said while regretting having provoked “An emotion and a misunderstanding, to the breast” of the municipal group that he chairs.
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A meeting Thursday between elected officials from the municipal right and their president confirmed “An irreconcilable dispute”, especially since the declarations to the JDD took place after “Many personal initiatives which cannot involve the whole group”, according to the press release from his co-listers.
“We don’t want to be hostages (…): our line is clear, in our group, which is also made up of centrists, nobody wants a connection with Eric Zemmour”, Pascal Blache told AFP. According to him, “For some time, Étienne Blanc seems to be interested in positioning” the polemicist who does not hide his presidential ambitions.