Alexis Delafontaine with AFP / Photo credit: GUILLAUME SOUVANT / AFP
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7:22 p.m., April 22, 2024
Jean-Luc Mélenchon announced that he would hold a conference on Monday evening at Sciences Po Paris. A few days ago, a conference in Lille on the situation in the Middle East was canceled. This is the third time that a speech by the leader of La France insoumise has been canceled.
The leader of La France insoumise Jean-Luc Mélenchon announced that he would hold a conference on Monday evening at Sciences Po Paris, a few days after the double cancellation of a conference in Lille. The founder of the radical left movement, who placed the situation in Gaza at the center of his party’s campaign for the June European elections, continues his tour of universities, begun several weeks ago, which has already brought him to Nantes, Créteil, Nanterre or Clermont-Ferrand.
Last week, he was due to give a lecture at the University of Lille on the situation in the Middle East, but the event was canceled. The university announced in a press release that the conditions were “no longer met to guarantee the serenity of the debates” due to the “worrying” rise in international tensions after “the military escalation that occurred on April 13 and 14 in the Middle East.” Orient”, in reference to the drone and missile attack launched by Iran against Israel.
Two other conferences already canceled
“I pity the president of the university because what he did is shameful,” said the leader of the Insoumis, castigating the “cowards who are not capable of defending freedom.” The Insoumis had initially wanted to relocate the conference to a private room, but this second event was itself canceled, this time by the prefecture.
A conference by Jean-Luc Mélenchon at the University of Bordeaux was canceled in October and another in Rennes was also canceled two weeks ago. The three-time presidential candidate must also travel to Armenia from Tuesday, in particular to participate in a ceremony commemorating the Armenian genocide.