Several hundred people gathered this Thursday evening in front of the Japy gymnasium, in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, in memory of the victims of Nazi Kristallnacht, of which it was the 85th anniversary.
The appeal was launched by the Memorial 98 association and the Action Network against Anti-Semitism and all Racism, in a context of an increase in anti-Semitic acts in France since the bloody Hamas attack in Israel on October 7.
LFI present to express its solidarity
The CGT and LFI called for people to join the rally in front of the Japy gymnasium, where many Jews were parked during the Occupation before being sent to concentration camps. Clémence Guetté, Alexis Corbière, Raquel Garrido, Clémentine Autain… Many elected officials from La France insoumise – criticized for being the only party not to call for the big march against anti-Semitism on Sunday – were present.
“It is very important for me to find a moment, a place, to express my solidarity and my empathy with all those who are threatened or who suffer anti-Semitic acts. It is very important to make our voice heard,” Seine-Saint-Denis MP Clémentine Autain told AFP.
“It is unthinkable that the far right could have a voice in demonstrations against anti-Semitism while we would be prevented from expressing this solidarity and empathy,” she added.
Solidarity “with the Jews of France”
Sophie Binet, general secretary of the CGT, for her part expressed the “solidarity” of the union organization “with the Jews of France”. “How can we imagine marching alongside the far right, the spiritual sons of those who deported six million Jews, to denounce anti-Semitism? How can we agree to march against anti-Semitism alongside Eric Zemmour, convicted of Holocaust denial? “, she declared to the crowd.
The former far-right presidential candidate and current president of the Reconquest! has never been convicted of Holocaust denial. He was definitively convicted twice for provoking hatred, for comments made in 2010 and 2016.