Since the disappearance of Émile, 2 and a half years old, on Saturday July 8, his family has been the subject of several rumors and questions. The founder of the traditionalist Christian organization Chrétienté Solidarité, of which the little boy’s father is a member, gave them his support.
Two weeks have passed since the disappearance of Émile, 2 and a half years old, in the town of Haut-Vernet (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence). Since the beginning of the investigation, the family of the little boy, known to the inhabitants, has remained very discreet, but has been the subject of several declarations. For a resident, its members lived “a bit like in a sect”while another estimated this family “very good, very united, very believing”. The little boy’s father, Colomban S., is himself part ofa traditionalist and far-right Christian association, Chrétienté Solidarité. Founded in 1986, the movement’s motto is “God, Family, Fatherland”. On the air at BFM TV, its founder, Bernard Antony, defended the family.
Like Émile’s father, Bernard Antony is close to the extreme right: he was notably an active member of the National Front (current Rassemblement national) until 2008. He knows the little boy’s grandfather well, treasurer of Chrétienté Solidarité, whom he describes as “an old fellow traveler”. According to him, Emile’s father is “a very nice boy, […] met several times. He is calm, calm and constantly seeks to grow. He and his father are very good people.” He specifies : “whether this little one is Catholic or not, close to our ideas or not, it doesn’t matter, it affects us all.”
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A traditional Christian family
If he is full of compliments on the family of the deceased, Bernard Antony also curried caricatures published in the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo : “I’ve read and seen some disgusting things. How can you get to such a degree of dehumanization?”, he was indignant. According to him, the family of the little boy is not fundamentalist. In La Bouilladisse (Bouches-du-Rhône), where the parents have recently settled, other residents have described them as “very traditional Catholicthe type to go to mass in Latin in Marseilles”. For Bernard Anthony, “they are Christians, period. The Mass in Latin is the traditional Mass, the one that gives real meaning to words. They are not part of a cult”.
Investigators are working tirelessly to unravel the case that has upset Haut-Vernet since Saturday July 8. Since the opening of the judicial investigation on Tuesday July 18, the investigation has accelerated with the examination of several vehicles and the hearing of a couplewhose husband is one of the last to have seen Émile.
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Passionate about writing, Floréane is interested in a wide variety of subjects. When she’s not writing about current events, the environment or gender issues, she takes refuge under a blanket…