The French interviewed by BFMTV in the marches against anti-Semitism this Sunday, November 12, expressed their concern, but also their determination to fight against the scourge.
Sunday afternoon, 182,000 people marched throughout France against anti-Semitism, in the presence of a good part of the political class, but without Emmanuel Macron or a large part of rebellious France. In Paris, the Esplanade des Invalides, the starting point of the march, remained filled with a compact crowd for a long time, reflecting a very large turnout estimated at 100,000 people.
Among them, several people present explained to BFMTV the motivations for their visit. “I came as a family, with my three children, my wife, my mother-in-law, friends, to show the anti-Semites that we are more numerous than them,” said a man met in the Parisian procession.
“It is essential to mobilize, we cannot return to such terrible feelings which may have taken place in the past”, adds a second.
“I didn’t think I would have to demonstrate one day against anti-Semitism,” testifies to AFP, Johanna, 46, medical secretary in Seine-Saint-Denis, who came for the sole reason that we should not not “be afraid of being Jewish”. Like many, she preferred to give only her first name.
“It is unacceptable”
In the provinces, calls to demonstrate were also heard. In Lyon, 3,000 people were present around Place Bellecour, including, symbolically, Claude Bloch, the last survivor of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.
“I think it’s very good to have done it because otherwise anti-Semitism will increase further. We are still not going to return to the period of the last war,” he said on our antenna.
France has the largest Jewish community in Europe, with around 500,000 people, who live side by side with millions of Muslims. The increase in anti-Semitic acts is one of the signs of a feared importation of the conflict.
In Marseille, 7,500 people, according to the authorities, marched in the streets of the Marseille city. Some demonstrators wore kippas, French flags but also signs on which were written “France, no to anti-Semitism” and “Since October 7 (date of the attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Israel, Editor’s note), in France 1,150 anti-Semitic acts. Enough!”
“What I see on TV scares me, it’s important for us, whether Jewish or not Jewish, to be present and show our support,” explains one of the participants to BFMTV. “What is happening is unacceptable and if I have to give my life, I will give it,” insists a second.
The president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur region Renaud Muselier (Renaissance), the president of the Aix-Marseille metropolis Martine Vassal (LR), the LR senator Valérie Boyer and the far-right senator from the Reconquête party ! Stéphane Ravier also paraded.
“I am on the one hand very very worried, but I am also confident about the Republican upsurge. The French, in their majority, are for a united and republican France,” concludes another participant.
A popular success, this march against anti-Semitism is the largest in France since that organized in 1990 after the desecration of the Jewish cemetery of Carpentras.