The Minister of Higher Education, Patrick Hetzel, announced on Saturday, November 9, that he would take legal action after the display of graffiti and the holding of a pro-Palestinian demonstration on Friday against the visit of the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, at the University of Lyon-III.
“To effectively combat these unacceptable acts, I have just made a report to the Lyon public prosecutor”announced the minister on X. “I am counting on his firmness to act and stem these excesses contrary to the Values of the Republic”he declared.
Mme Braun-Pivet was targeted on Friday by hostile tags and slogans from pro-Palestinian activists opposed to her coming to the university, such as “Yaël get out of there”, “genocidal perpetrators outside our universities”.
« Free Gaza » or « Free Palestine » were also part of messages tagged in large letters at night near the campus, some of which were quickly erased.
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Yaël Braun-Pivet did not meet the demonstrators
Around 200 demonstrators continued on the same register in the afternoon, before the arrival of the Macronist MP, chanting “Criminal Israel, Yaël complicit” or “Yaël, get out of there, Lyon-III is not yours”.
The Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, denounced on “fascist drift of activists who exploit the tragedy experienced by the Palestinians”. Patrick Hetzel, for his part, condemned Friday “with force the anti-Semitic insults uttered against Yaël Braun-Pivet and the unacceptable actions of groups of students occurring at Lyon-III”.
Mme Braun-Pivet, who did not encounter the demonstrators, spoke for a little over an hour with around 200 students.
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