Lots of reactions but still few answers: what happened on the campus of a Lyon university, known to be away from political turbulence?
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Pro-Palestinian demonstrators opposed the visit of the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, to Lyon-3 University on Friday.
Verbal attacks, even anti-Semitic outbursts against the fourth person in state, have sparked condemnation from the university presidency as well as political leaders.
“Yaël get lost“, “Israel murderer, Yaël accomplice“, “burns 1 Zionist“, “Free Gaza“, “long live the Palestinian armed struggle” and other messages had been tagged during the night on the walls and near the campus of the Manufacture des tabacs, in the 8th arrondissement of Lyon.
According to a teacher present on the scene Friday morning, contacted by Euronews, some of this graffiti was “being cleaned“, a few hours before the conference, organized by the Poli'Gones university association, entitled “President of the National Assembly: from the bar to the hemicycle, the remarkable journey of a woman in politics“.
Staff at the establishment point out that Yaël Braun-Pivet's visit was not communicated through official Lyon-3 channels and that no visual advertising appears to have been displayed on campus. It is not clear whether this was done in anticipation of possible overflows.
A publication on Poli'Gones' Instagram account suggests that entry to the conference was paid.
Local media and AFP report that Yaël Braun-Pivet did not encounter demonstrators and was able to exchange views during “a little over an hour” with “around 200 students“.
In a video extract, published on X, the President of the National Assembly thanked the president of the university for having maintained the event. “Debate is the foundation of our democracy. It must be able to be held in all circumstances and in all places, particularly in our universities“, she added.
Rallies with Palestinian flags took place in different locations, including in an inner courtyard of the university. Cries of “Accomplices to the genocide outside our universities” were uttered.
Videos circulating on social media also showed damage within the local UNI, a student union classified to the hard right.
In a message that we were able to consult, addressed Saturday evening to teachers and students, the new president of Lyon-3, Gilles Bonnet, confirms having requested the intervention of the police and taken legal action “to all offenses noted during these disturbances”.
“Everything in the values of our university rejects anti-Semitism as much as calls for censorship of an elected representative of the Republic and all forms of violence and aggression,” added Mr. Bonnet.
It is not clear at this stage whether the participants in these protests were Lyon-3 students.
Several members of the government expressed their support for Ms. Braun-Pivet and condemned these attacks.
The Minister of Higher Education, Patrick Hetzelannounced on Saturday, to carry out a “reporting” with the public prosecutor of Lyon.
Earlier, the Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleaudenounced what he calls a “fascist drift“activists”far left” Who “exploit the drama that the Palestinians are experiencing“.
Yaël Braun-Pivet has been the subject of regular attacks since the start of the IDF operation in Gaza, in reaction to the October 7 attacks.
On October 22, 2023, to criticize a trip by the President of the Assembly to Israel, Jean-Luc Mélenchon accused her in a tweet of “camp in Tel Aviv to encourage the massacre“, which created a controversy around the use of this verb and the anti-Semitic allusions that it can convey.
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