Stéphane Burgatt with AFP / Photo credit: AFP
modified to
7:09 p.m., June 21, 2024
A muscular exchange took place on Friday in Avignon between Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and an LFI candidate for the legislative elections, the controversial Raphaël Arnault, the two men insulting each other over the fight against the far right. “During this entire five-year term and this last mandate of President Macron, I admit that we felt abandoned in the face of the violence of the extreme right,” accused Raphaël Arnault, candidate of the New Popular Front in the first constituency of Vaucluse , held since 2022 by the National Rally.
“When we see what The Young Guard, the movement of which you are a part, is capable of making in terms of violent remarks, as a threat towards our fellow citizens, we have no lessons to give in the fight against extremism”, replied the Prime Minister, in reference to this anti-fascist movement assuming a muscular strategy against the extreme right. Raphaël Arnault, 29, who comes from the Lyon region, is listed as S in the police register listing individuals potentially dangerous to national security.
“Apologia for terrorism”
He had been summoned by the judicial police for “apology of terrorism” due to a tweet published on October 7, since deleted, where he affirmed that “the Palestinian resistance has launched an unprecedented offensive on the colonial state of Israel “. A tweet that Gabriel Attal once again criticized on Friday, accusing him of not being “capable of saying that Hamas is a terrorist organization.” The unprecedented Hamas attack in southern Israel on October 7, 2023 resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mainly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
In retaliation, Israel vowed to “annihilate” the Palestinian Islamist movement. More than 37,400 people, again mostly civilians, have been killed in Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health. This movement still holds more than a hundred Israeli hostages out of 251 people kidnapped. 41 died, according to the Israeli army.
Attal in support of candidate Malika Di Fraja
“With the speeches you give, you are no better than the extreme right,” continued the Prime Minister, after Raphaël Arnault asked him if he intended to call “to systematically vote against the National Rally” in the event of duel RN – New Popular Front in the second round. Traveling to Marseille on Wednesday, Raphaël Glucksmann, who obtained 13.8% in the European elections for the Socialist Party and Place publique, for his part called to vote “for the democratic or republican candidate, whoever he may be”, in order to to block the far right in the second round.
Raphaël Arnault will face a dissident candidacy on the left, in the person of Philippe Pascal, 67, a former labor inspector, supported by the PS, environmentalists and several local elected officials, including the socialist mayor of Avignon Cécile Helle. Gabriel Attal came to Avignon on Friday to support the candidate of the presidential majority, Malika Di Fraja, president of Renaissance in Vaucluse. In this first constituency of Vaucluse, outgoing RN MP Catherine Jaouen will also face four other candidates, including LR Johan Courtois.