For the first time, the extreme right exceeds 50% in this village of Ain, where 44 Jewish children were rounded up, then deported and killed in Auschwitz. The director of the Izieu house says he is “despaired” of these results but calls not to stigmatize the inhabitants.
The date, the result, the place. Everything is symbolic. Sunday, in the second round of the presidential election, Marine Le Pen came out on top in Izieu (Ain). The National Rally candidate peaks at 51.45% in the village of Ain, where some 240 people live. This is the first time that the extreme right has crossed the 50% threshold here, in Izieu, where 44 Jewish children were rounded up on April 6, 1944. Deported, they were all killed in Auschwitz. The house where these children of all origins – German, Polish, Austrian or French – took refuge was held by Sabine Zlatin. Today, Dominique Vidaud directs the memorial and looks back on the historically high score of the National Rally.
How did you receive the results on Sunday evening?
We knew something was going to happen. In the first round, by adding the votes of Eric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen, we already reached 43%. These results had already despaired me. It all went wrong. This result has symbolic value. Izieu is not just any town. It is an important place of memory, of a history that cannot be forgotten. Despite everything – and without wanting to minimize the event – it should be remembered that we are reasoning on a workforce of 138 voters. Everything depends on a few voices.
How do you explain these 51% collected by Marine Le Pen?
The divorce between the deep rural territory and the rest of the country has been poorly measured. The Le Pen vote is a protest vote. I know these people, I meet them daily. Every year, on July 14, I make it a point to go to the meal organized by the municipality. They are all good people. However, they have two major concerns: their purchasing power and fear of the future. They see prices rising, starting with firewood. And then they are anxious, they wonder how they are going to do in ten years to move around, keep warm… These are questions to which they are not given any concrete answer.
You speak socially but you go very little into the realm of values. Have people lost their memory in Izieu?
I am very firm, it is not. The village elders, who knew this story, passed it on to their children who carry it themselves today. But they don’t live in Izieu. They went to Lyon, Grenoble, Chambéry or elsewhere. Those who came to settle in the commune, the neo-rurals, had no memory of the Izieu roundup at all. It doesn’t tell them anything. This sort of sacred duty never to lose sight of what the extreme right is does not exist with them. The old families of the town, they transmit the oath made during the first commemoration in 1946 to never forget the memory of Izieu. We must not bring shame on the population of the village, it would be very unfair.
Beyond perpetuating the memory of these Jewish children, is your mission to fight against obscurantism and to be a lookout?
Completely. At the moment, we have an exhibition that revolves around the event of April 7, 1946, the date of the first ceremony in memory of the roundup. 3,000 people were mobilized, the communist minister Laurent Casanova was present, as was the prefect of Ain, the deputies and the senators. It was an extraordinary day with very strong speeches. For us it is a comfort to say that the local town halls and schools want this exhibition. We try to show that the Republic was carried by communists, socialists and democrats. At the Liberation, the far right excluded itself from this refoundation of the Republic, because it had collaborated. We are not off topic.
The vote in favor of Marine Le Pen is very strong among young people. Should we intensify actions at the memorial and education about them?
We receive 15,000 young people a year and we know that this work is effective. It would be necessary to strengthen, in National Education, the programs of the Second World War, the post-war period and the legacy that this period has left us. The old families of Izieu are very attached to it.