A stele erected in honor of Simone Veil was once again degraded this Saturday at Perros-Guirec, in the Côtes-d’Armor, said the prefect, Thierry Mosimann. The latter “wishes to condemn with the greatest firmness the new degradation of the stele in homage to Simone Veil in Perros-Guirec”, indicates a press release.
“According to the latest information available, this act was committed this [samedi] morning after 8 o’clock. The means of the gendarmerie are fully mobilized in order to find the culprit (s), ”the statement said, calling on anyone likely to have information to contact the gendarmerie, which had already launched a call for witnesses after a previous degradation in middle of the week. The gendarmerie then discovered that the stele had been “covered with tags with swastikas”. The prefecture does not specify the nature of the damage committed this time.
“France will not back down”
“France will not back down”, tweeted President Emmanuel Macron as a result of this new desecration. “We will never allow anti-Semitism to take hold. For Simone Veil whose stele has been desecrated, to all, I want to repeat it: France will not retreat, ”wrote the Head of State.
Simone Veil (1927-2017), who was deported to Auschwitz, notably left her name in 1975 to the law legalizing voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion). She was also President of the European Parliament (1979-1982). Also an academic, she was president of the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah (2001-2007). It entered the Pantheon in 2018.