They had promised not to remain silent. To maintain their peace conference despite the cancellation of the University of Lille announced on Wednesday. But the Northern prefecture decided this Thursday, April 18 to ban the public meeting to be held by Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the Franco-Palestinian activist Rima Hassan, also a candidate in 7th position on the France Insoumise list for the European elections, in a private room in the capital of Flanders. “Today, we learned with astonishment of the decision of the Northern prefecture to file an order banning this event”let the rebels know in a press release.
“This prefectural decree […] is based on the risks of disturbing public order due to calls for mobilization launched by several organizations which could lead to gatherings, crowds and clashes on public roads, in a climate of increased geopolitical tensions.justifies the prefecture.
“This relentlessness against France Insoumise is totally intolerable”we squeak at LFI. “In the middle of an electoral campaign, the decision to cancel a public event in which members of the political opposition are to participate is an extremely serious precedent for our democracy”, believes the Mélenchonist movement. For the tribune, this ban “is an abuse of power of a banana republic”. And to add: “to the cockroaches who voted for pesticides against ants, a message: even the bees who abstained died. It’s time to stop being silent.”.
“The ban on the public meeting of LFI by the prefect of the North is a dangerous precedent and a democratic scandal”adds the socialist deputy from Calvados Arthur Delaporte on X. “In the middle of an electoral campaign, banning again a public meeting organized by LFI is an affront to democracy. This meeting must obviously be authorized”, also believes the First Secretary of the PS Olivier Faure. On Wednesday, the entire left had already denounced the cancellation of the conference by the University of Lille. Questioned at a press conference this Thursday, Emmanuel Macron also reacted: “I am for respecting the laws of the Republic. Afterwards, for my part, I am always in favor of people being able to express themselves freely, even if I fight their ideas.
“Again, we reaffirm: no one will prevent us from defending the ideas that are ours”, say the rebels. The latter therefore announce to file “at the prefecture an appointment for a public gathering with a speech by Jean-Luc Mélenchon against censorship and for peace” this Thursday, April 18 at 6:30 p.m. place Vanhoenacker, in Lille-Moulins.
This new incident comes after several days of heated controversy. As soon as a visual promoting the event was published on social networks at the end of last week, several elected officials such as LR president of Hauts-de-France Xavier Bertrand and Macronist MP Violette Spillebout requested a ban on the conference. Notably because the meeting was organized by the “Free Palestine” association, whose logo shows a single territory encompassing Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Many political leaders, such as the head of the PS list for the European elections, Raphaël Glucksmann, then considered that this emblem “denies the existence of the State of Israel”. And therefore that LFI intended to participate in an anti-Zionist, even anti-Semitic, meeting.