After the death of Jean-Marie Le Pen, François Bayrou accused of minimizing his career

POLICY – ” More or less violent, lively and aggressive debate, most often in writing “. Thus the Larousse describes the name “ controversy », used this Tuesday, January 7 by the Prime Minister, François Bayrou, to describe the political life of Jean-Marie Le Pen. In the minutes following the announcement of the death of the founder of the National Front, the head of government made a tweet which provoked an avalanche of indignant reactions, from the left to the right.

« Beyond the controversies which were his favorite weapon and the necessary confrontations on the merits, Jean-Marie Le Pen was a figure in French political life. We knew, by fighting him, what a fighter he was », Wrote the Prime Minister, thus giving the impression of minimizing the series of scandals which have punctuated the career of the tutelary figure of the French extreme right.

“Outside the republican framework”

Which made several political leaders jump. “ Anti-Semitism, revisionism, racism and homophobia are not polemics. Jean-Marie Le Pen, through his actions and his words, found himself outside the republican framework. He was even convicted for it », castigated the communist senator Pierre Ouzoulias. Same indignant reaction from the LFI MP, Alma Dufour. “ Indeed, we knew what a fighter he was. A torturer from the Algerian War, an anti-Semite, worshiper of Pétain, armed with a Waffen-SS dagger », she listed, before making a link between the Prime Minister’s reaction and his fate in the National Assembly, where François Bayrou finds himself at the mercy of censorship from the RN.

LR MP for Aisne, Julien Dive does not think otherwise. “ By wanting to be too focused on oneself and the one who holds the hangman’s rope, we rewrite history in “controversies” where it is about scandals and legal convictions. », tackles this elected official close to Xavier Bertrand. “ To vomit “, simply reacted the environmentalist deputy Benjamin Lucas.

It is true that the expression used by the Prime Minister appears to fall short of the career of the founder of the National Front, who was the subject of several condemnations during his political career. Whether for “ apology for war crimes and contestation of crimes against humanity » or even « incitement to hatred, discrimination and racial violence “. Difficult, moreover, to reduce to the rank of simple “ controversy » the outcry caused by his denialist remarks regarding the gas chambers, described by Jean-Marie Le Pen as a “ detail of the story “. As if this scandal was of the same magnitude as, by chance, a trip of convenience to Pau while a French department was hit by a deadly cyclone.

Conversely, the head of state’s reaction to the disappearance of Jean-Marie Le Pen proved much more sober. “ A historical figure of the extreme right, he played a role in the public life of our country for nearly seventy years, which is now subject to the judgment of History. The President of the Republic expresses his condolences to his family and loved ones », We can read in a press release sent by the Élysée.

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