Five days before the first round of the presidential election, the death of Jérémy Cohen has become a political fact, widely commented on by the candidates. A drama that should not give rise to “political manipulation”, warned Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday in Brittany.
The Head of State also asked for “complete clarity” on young man’s death.
This statement by the resident of the Élysée is aimed in particular at the far-right candidate Éric Zemmour (Reconquête!), the first to have publicized the case at the request of the family of the victim whose father he received on Tuesday morning.
“Did he die to run away from scum? Did he die because he was Jewish? Why is this case hushed up?”, published the polemicist, this Monday on his Twitter account.
Other candidates for the election also reacted to the drama. Marine Le Pen (RN) spoke of a “criminal act” which “could be an anti-Semitic murder”.
An investigation still ongoing
“All light must be shed” on the drama, for their part asked three other presidential candidates, Jean-Luc Mélenchon (LFI), Yannick Jadot (EELV) and Valérie Pécresse (LR) who denounced a “lynching ignoble which could be of an anti-Semitic nature”.
For her part, Nathalie Arthaud (LO) denounced “an instrumentalization” by Éric Zemmour.
Since Monday afternoon, the attention of the candidates has been focused on the case of Jérémy Cohen, a young Jewish man hit by a tram in mid-February in Bobigny following violence. According to the first elements, the victim was trying to escape his attackers.
At his request, Emmanuel Macron’s office spoke to the mother and then the father of the victim, Jérémy Cohen, on the telephone, assuring them that “all means will be implemented” to “shed all the light on this affair” that he intends to “follow closely”, declared the Élysée.
At this stage of the investigation into the death of Jérémy Cohen, there is no element to establish “discriminatory grounds”, said Éric Mathais, prosecutor of Bobigny, on Tuesday.