“Where do you see me comparing Macron and Pétain? (…) Of course not Emmanuel Macron is not Philippe Pétain”, declared Mathilde Panot on franceinfo this Monday. The president of the LFI group in the National Assembly has been under fire from critics since a tweet in which she criticizes Emmanuel Macron for having “honoured Pétain” in 2018.
On Saturday, on the occasion of the commemoration of the Vel d’Hiv Roundup, she tweeted: “80 years ago, the collaborationists of the Vichy regime organized the Vel d’Hiv roundup. Do not forget these crimes, today more than ever, with a President of the Republic who honors Pétain and 89 RN deputies ”. This tweet aroused the indignation of several members of the majority, but also of members of the Nupes and the RN.
Those who criticize his tweet “didn’t read it well”
“No there is no deletion of the tweet! she said, asking “what is factually wrong in what I wrote? “. “What I wanted to say with this tweet is that not only are there 89 RN deputies in the National Assembly, which (…) makes us say that we must always continue the fight against theories and extreme right, racist and anti-Semitic ideas, but also that it is not acceptable to pay homage to Pétain”.
It refers to the words of Emmanuel Macron who, in 2018, had described Pétain as a “great soldier” during the First World War, even if he then “led disastrous choices”. For Mathilde Panot, those who criticize her tweet “did not read it well”. “The tweet is a way of paying homage to these people who died because they were Jewish, and a way of sounding the alarm about the political moment we are living in.”