In the hours following the death of 12 members of Charlie Hebdo, Jean-Marie Le Pen caused controversy. He died 10 years after the attack on the satirical newspaper.
“I don’t feel like Charlie’s spirit at all. I’m not going to fight to defend Charlie’s spirit, which is an anarcho-Trotskyist spirit that perfectly dissolves political morality.”
Should we see a certain irony of fate in the death, at 96, of Jean-Marie Le Pen, 10 years to the day, after the attack on Charlie Hebdo?
10 years ago, the day after the attack on Charlie Hebdo, Jean-Marie Le Pen caused controversy, in a video, by declaring that he was not “Charlie”. Stunned by the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and against hyper-kosher, France was then in shock, united in a mixture of fear and sorrow, one of the foundations of its Republic having been shaken by these Islamist attacks.
France united in sadness
But as always when the Nation is united, whether in joy or sadness, the founder of the National Front found fault with this unanimity which was nevertheless not feigned.
“Today it’s: we are all Charlie, I am Charlie. Well, I’m sorry, I’m not Charlie,” he declared. “I feel touched by the death of twelve French compatriots whose political identity I do not even want to know, although I know it well, whether it is that of enemies of the FN who demanded its dissolution by petition. ‘not that long ago.’
A few days later, during a press conference in Tarascon (Bouches-du-Rhône), Jean-Marie Le Pen confirmed: “No, I am not Charlie, I am rather Charlie Martel”, in reference to the Battle of Poitiers and the historic victory of the Christians over the Muslims.
The National Front away from emotional momentum
As a reminder, the leaders of the National Front, including its president Marine Le Pen, were not invited, on January 11, 2015, to the Republican march bringing together all the other French parties but also foreign presidents and prime ministers including Mahmoud Abbas, representative of the Palestinian authority, and Benyamin Netanyahu, already at the head of the Israeli government. Image that seems impossible to see again today.
Here again, the image of the sacred union had irritated Jean-Marie Le Pen. “All these people are walking with the sign ‘Je suis Charlie’ when in fact it is ‘charlots’ who are responsible for the decadence of France”, he declared during a press conference in Tarascon (Bouches-du-Rhône).
No more mourning period during major tragedies
“We are trying to transform the feeling of grief into a positive political operation,” he also decided. An opinion which, at the time, stood out. But, since then, the far right has largely stepped into the breach by no longer respecting a logical period of mourning when the country is hit by a great tragedy, deciding to immediately make it its electoral gain.
Whether for the attacks of November 13, 2015 or for more recent news items such as the death of Lola in Paris or that of Thomas in Crépol, without leaving time for emotion and compassion, the fachosphere is always the first to strike with the penknife in the unanimity of circumstances.
