According to Éric Coquerel, registered activist S Elias Imzalène is “certainly more respectable” than Bruno Retailleau

Elias Imzalène plus «respectable» as Bruno Retailleau. This is what LFI deputy and president of the Finance Committee at the National Assembly Éric Coquerel said on the RMC set on November 15. L'Insoumis was questioned about his presence at a demonstration in Saint-Denis against the holding of the France-Israel football match to denounce a “genocide” in Gaza.

During the rally, the MP appeared alongside the controversial pro-Palestinian activist Elias Imzalene. The latter notably appeared last October for public incitement to hatred or violence, after having called for “the intifada in Paris” in September.

«I didn't see that I was next to this person […] I don't know him, I'm sorry. At that moment, I'm going to look at the images of the match and I'm going to tell you that there was Emmanuel Macron next to activists with “Israel will live, Israel will win”, who are far-right.”replied Éric Coquerel.

“I think that this person is certainly more respectable, with regard to what Mr. Retailleau is coming out with today, that he borrows a lot of his racist vocabulary from the far right, etc.,” also answered the MP to the question of the journalist Apolline de Malherbe who asked him if he thought that Elias Imzalène was more «respectable» as Bruno Retailleau.

This demonstrator, file S, is known for his radical and communitarian speeches. France Insoumise had appeared several times at his side. He was notably accompanied by Louis Boyard, Carlos Martens Bilongo and Thomas Portes during the demonstration in front of the TF1 premises against the interview with Benyamin Netanyahu on LCI last May, reports L’Express . He also stood alongside pro-Palestine activist and MEP Rima Hassan at several rallies.