At Sonia Mabrouk’s microphone, Jordan Bardella, president of the RN, responded to criticism castigating the party’s presence with the flame at the Pantheonization ceremony of Missak Manouchian, resisting the Nazi and foreign occupiers. “Unacceptable”, “unbearable”, deplore the committee supporting the pantheonization of Missak Manouchian and the families, who accuse the National Front, of which the RN is the heir, of having been founded by “Nazis and collaborationists” . The president of the RN believes that the presence of his party is legitimate: “each time the Republic summons us, we respond to its call”.
“We will obviously be there to commemorate the entry into the Pantheon of those who fought to defend a certain idea of France, an idea of free France,” he continues. In an interview with the newspaper‘Humanity, Emmanuel Macron estimated that “the far-right forces would be inspired not to be present” at this ceremony. Jordan Bardella deplores the President’s comments: “He is using moments that should be moments of national unity to stir up controversies, to pit the French against each other.” “We have the first opposition group in the Assembly and it is quite normal that we are present in these types of important moments for the French Republic,” he explains.
“The story is complex”
For the leader of the National Rally, the presence of former Vichyists among the founders of the Front National, former National Rally, is not an obstacle to the presence of his party during this ceremony: “We can remake history (. ..) but there was also Mr. Mitterrand who was one of the traveling companions of Mr. Bousquet (former high-ranking official and collaborator of the Nazi regime Editor’s note), and Mr. Mitterrand also received from the hands of Marshal Pétain one of the regime’s highest distinctions.
He believes that “history is complex” and that observations of the past of political parties must be made “for the entire political spectrum”. “Marine Le Pen recalled that her grandfather had his name on the Trinity war memorial in Brittany and that part of her family gave their lives to defend free France. I deplore that the President of the Republic , who is the President of all French people, uses national history to play politics. It’s outrageous,” he concludes.