During the debate organized on “France 2” in the run-up to the legislative elections, the Prime Minister mentioned two articles from “Libération”. And provoked the wrath of his opponent.
Could Gabriel Attal be one of our most loyal readers? During the debate organized on France 2 three days before the first round of the legislative elections, the Prime Minister in any case mentioned twice articles signed by our newspaper to tackle his far-right opponent, Jordan Bardella. And inaugurated the first exchange of barbs of an evening rich in clashes.
It all started with a question: how to restore calm to the country? “The role of political leaders is to seek appeasement and set an example”began by responding the former spokesperson of the Elysée. Before drawing his gun without warning: “Mr Bardella cannot present himself here as the man of unity, of appeasement”. The reason ? The program of the MEP who “stigmatizes 3.5 million dual-national French people”he believes at a time when the RN wants to prevent them from occupying “extremely sensitive jobs”. But also the list of candidates from Marine Le Pen’s party, among which “one hundred” has already held “racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic remarks…”
A complaint… never received
The Prime Minister is referring here to an investigation by Release revealing the presence of dozens of candidates who had already made reprehensible remarks in the Le Pen ranks. A few days after the publication of our article, the RN had also withdrawn its support for one of them, Joseph Martin. Running in Morbihan, he had written in October 2018 that “The gas (had) brought justice to the victims of the Shoah”. In his defense, Jordan Bardella assured France 2 that the latter had “complained” against Release. If Joseph Martin, who has since been reinstated by the RN, actually told AFP that he wanted to attack our newspaper – after having spoken the day before with one of our journalists in a much more courteous tone – he could not -have not yet found our address: for the moment, we have not received any complaints.
Other article Liberation mentioned by Gabriel Attal to tickle his opponent: the arrest of the son of a former RN executive after a homophobic attack in Paris. “Hopefully in three weeks, we will be able to break PD as much as we want,” said one of his cronies. An illustration among many others allowing the Prime Minister to underline the “impulses of hatred, of discrimination that feel released” with the rise of the far-right party.
To support his point, the former Minister of Education also mentions a viral sequence from the show “Envoyé Spécial” in which an RN supporter repeatedly insults her neighbor. Enough to raise the tone between the two men who end up tearing each other apart in an inaudible hubbub, while Olivier Faure remains silent, looking a little stunned, standing in the middle of the two unleashed mutts. At the very end of the exchange, we hear Jordan Bardella choke and call Gabriel Attal a “France’s first liar.”
