Big stir on the sidelines of a trip by Eric Zemmour to Limoges, who came to present his latest book in a room in the municipality. Wednesday, June 21 in the afternoon, Frédéric Tronche, a CGT railway activist from Haute-Vienne, was arrested at the station and then placed in police custody. In question: the invectives he would have launched at the former far-right presidential candidate, while he was on the same train as him in the direction of the prefecture of the department.
Near CheckNews, the staff of the Departmental Directorate of Public Security of Haute-Vienne confirms that an arrest took place at the station on Wednesday around 4 p.m. The latter was lifted at 11:05 p.m. the same day. “An investigation is underway”, says our source. Information confirmed by the Limoges prosecutor, who indicates to CheckNews that the investigation opened for “public racial and religious insults” is still ongoing, “in particular to identify other witnesses, some of whom have already been heard”.
“I check if the train is going to Limoges… afraid it will go to Poland”
The case is now the subject of a lively controversy and various interpretations. The CGT evokes an anti-fascist joke; Eric Zemmour’s supporters denounce anti-Semitic remarks. This Thursday morning, the situation provoked a reaction from the general secretary of the CGT, Sophie Binet. It indicates that the activist has “asked the controller to find out if the train was not going to Vichy”. And took the opportunity to challenge the Minister of the Interior and the Prime Minister. “As we have indicated to your offices, our comrade has serious health problems”, she specifies.
In the process, Nicolas Bay, support of Zemmour, also reacted, giving another version. According to him, the activist launched the sentence at Eric Zemmour “Are you taking the train to Auschwitz?” Solicited by CheckNews in order to be put in contact with direct witnesses, the latter did not respond. In a Reconquest press releasethe movement indicates that it would have added: “I didn’t know it was the train to Dachau?” before witnesses and “caught in the act by the police who may have considered these remarks as inciting hatred on grounds of race or religion”. The statement adds that a complaint has been filed by Eric Zemmour.
On Frédéric Tronche’s Facebook page, many Internet users have also spotted a post he published before being arrested, stating: “Zemmour in my train… I’m checking if the train is going to Limoges… I’m afraid it’s going to Poland…”
In the comments quickly flourished accusations of anti-Semitism as well as death threats against the activist.
For his part, the main interested party does not wish to speak. In his place, Arnaud Raffier, secretary general of the departmental union of the CGT Haute-Vienne first indicates to CheckNews that “nothing was said” by the activist “apart from the Facebook post which the zemmourians use to create controversy”. Secondly, however, he admits that Frédéric Tronche would have “spoke, with other people, to Eric Zemmour on the station platform, and reminded him of a certain number of facts. First of all the various convictions of Zemmour as well as his desire to rehabilitate Pétain. For the Secretary General, “nothing supports the occurrence of anti-Semitic remarks”.
Social networks without proximity to anti-Semitism
It should be noted that the other publications on the activist’s social networks that CheckNews was able to consult before their suppression do not testify to a proximity with anti-Semitic theses. Thus, the same day, a few hours after the controversial Facebook post, Frédéric Tronche relayed on his page the call for demonstrations against the arrival of Eric Zemmour in Limoges. He then stated in particular: “Each sentence, at least delusional, if not abject, pronounced or written by the far-right candidate twists reality to his liking for electoral purposes. With the choice on Vichy, Maurice Papon or the Dreyfus affair, Zemmour uses the same intellectual scams that the fascists used in their time. […] To authorize Zemmour in a municipal hall is to turn your back on the land of resistance represented by the Limousin. It’s putting your feet in the slippers of the right-wing town halls that led the city during the collaboration. It is to choose the worshipers of Maurras rather than the descendants of Georges Guingouin [résistant communiste de Haute-Vienne, ndlr] and de Gaulle.
On June 11, he also published a photo of himself indicating “Ugict versus Action française. No fachos on our land of resistance…” And the day before, a message in memory of the massacre of the village of Oradour-sur-Glane by the Nazis, with this caption: “June 10, 1944…neither forgotten nor forgiven…”