Neither apology nor forgiveness from Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Less than 24 hours after his controversial remarks, the Chief Rebel clarified his thoughts this Friday. The day before, in front of an audience of activists in Lille, he had drawn a parallel between the president of the University of Lille and the Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann. The sequence relayed on social networks did not fail to provoke reaction from Aurore Bergé, minister responsible for equality between women and men and the fight against discrimination:
“Every day LFI takes a new step in indecency and excess. Comparing a university president to Eichmann is unbearable
,” she declared this Friday.
In response, the third man in the last presidential election clarified his thoughts on Friday on BFMTV, deploring
“the inculture of our time”
.
“The comparison with Adolf Eichmann is not intended to draw a parallel of an exact similarity between Nazism and today, I have a sense of history, I know it well, in any case, more than those who tell me criticize”
, explains Jean-Luc Mélenchon, justifying this connection with a reference “
to a very famous book for those who read a little”
:
The Origins of Totalitarianism
by Hannah Arendt.
“In her book, she explains how absolute evil always tries to dilute itself by compartmentalizing tasks. Everyone who has accomplished a task says to themselves
"I am not a criminal"
,
that's what Eichmann said
.
This controversial comparison came after the cancellation of a conference on Gaza which was to be held the same day in the university's premises and in which Jean-Luc Mélenchon was to participate. To explain the refusal to host the event, the university presidency cited that
“the conditions (were) no longer met to guarantee the serenity of the debates”
. After this conference was relocated to a private room, it was the prefect of the North who banned the event from being held due to a risk of
“disturbing public order”
.
The two bans provoked the ire of the rebels. After the president of the university, Jean-Luc Mélenchon therefore attacked the prefect. On BFMTV, the former deputy denounced
“an abuse of power”
by the senior official:
“Or else the prefect is a liar, that is to say he made a decision while acting as if he had a order on the subject. Or someone else is lying,”
targeting Gabriel Attal and Emmanuel Macron. “
The prefect abused his power and therefore he must be sanctioned,”
he concluded.