At the microphone of Sonia Mabrouk, Fabien Roussel, PCF candidate for the presidential election, spoke about the death of Jérémy Cohen, a 31-year-old young man who died last February when he was hit by a tram while trying to escape from a band. If the reasons for the fight that preceded the death of Jérémy Cohen are still unknown, some candidates for the presidential election have mentioned a potential anti-Semitic nature of this attack, without this being established by the Bobigny prosecution.
For his part, Fabien Roussel declared on Europe 1: “Anti-Semitism is a real poison in our Republic. There have never been so many anti-Semitic acts which are on the increase every year.” He also wished that “all the light be shed” in order to know the motivations of this aggression. “I wouldn’t want to do justice instead of justice,” he also said.
“The Republic is equality, whatever our origin or religion!”
The candidate also declared to be in favor of a strengthening of the law “so that political leaders who could make racist or anti-Semitic remarks are severely condemned, including a sentence of ineligibility.” “The Republic is equality, whatever our origin or religion, let’s live together” added Fabien Roussel.
Referring to the debates triggered by his presence, in particular alongside the essayist Caroline Fourest, at the tribute to Charlie Hebdo, Fabien Roussel estimated: “these are debates that exist in society and on the left. They come from some who want to put adjectives, adverbs behind secularism, these are people who say “secularism yes but” or “freedom of expression yes but”” but I retain from the cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo the importance of freedom of expression. We must defend it as the apple of our eye”
“It is also in the name of freedom of expression that Samuel Paty was beheaded, we too often forget that. What should be done? No longer teach freedom of expression and put it on hold in our schools because we are afraid? No, never, we must defend freedom of expression, designers, creators” he continued.
Finally on secularism, the candidate for the presidential election concluded: “I would also like to protect those who believe or not. We very often live well together! So let’s preserve this strength of our Republic!”