The coincidences of history will have wanted it to fall on February 6 ... Under the bewildered gaze of onlookers in the rue Saint-Honoré, in Paris, a very solemn procession paraded. Fighters of the colonial wars, veterans of the National Front as figures of the nationalist camp met on Thursday, in the Saint-Roch church, to pay a final tribute to their "comrade in combat", Roger Holeindre.
Paratrooper commando during the wars of Indochina and Algeria, "popeye" as his relatives nicknamed him, participated in the presidential campaign of Tixier-Vignancourt in 1965. Before co-founding, with Jean-Marie Le Pen seven years later, The National Front. Party, of which this dreaded bawdy Corsican will become the vice-president, before defending its colors in the National Assembly between 1986 and 1988. "More than a friend, he was a brother" , confided on 30 last January, Jean-Marie Le Pen, at the announcement of the death of this traveling companion over sixty years old.
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Under some applause, it is the green beret screwed on the skull and medals on the chest that the patriarch of the Le Pen clan began to climb the few steps leading to the “artists' parish”. Bell tower more accustomed to the smoked glasses of the world of showbiz than to the French flags flocked with the weapons of elite regiments. Between the spans meet and greet the essayist Jean-Yves le Gallou, the bodyguard of Marine Le Pen, Thierry Légier, like the former general of the corps Christian Piquemal. While Latin invocations, scout prayers and chants “para” follow one another, the President of the Party of France, Carl Lang, the director of TV Liberté, Martial Bild, and the former FN treasurer, Jean-Pierre Reveau, reflect. “It's a family that finds itself. It is touching to see so many people, loose the former MEP RN with contained emotion, Bruno Gollnisch. This beautiful ceremony honors a man to whom the most basic honors that his career justified have always been refused. ”
Marion Maréchal and Jean-Marie Le Pen. SEBASTIEN SORIANO / Le Figaro
Beside him, in the front row facing the altar, take place besides Jean-Marie Le Pen and his wife Janny, the young retiree from political life, Marion Maréchal, like the one who first set foot in political stirrup: the former regional councilor of Ile-de-France FN, Marie-Christine Arnautu. If Yann Le Pen was also present, his sister Marine will have preferred to sulk the event. Despite the years, the grudge will have remained tenacious between the president of the National Rally and the one who preferred to slam the door of the movement rather than see her take the reins. "This woman does not have our ideas. You will see, it will drive you out of your own party ” , would have slipped, in 2011, Roger Holeindre to Jean-Marie Le Pen. An animosity which explains the absence of any representative of the current party leadership in the flame. With the notable exception of MEP Nicolas Bay.
In the purest traditionalist form, the service takes place according to the Tridentine rite: in Latin and priest back to the faithful. Father Jean-Paul Argouarc'h, of the community of Riaumont, will however turn around for a homily mixing glory of the deceased and obscure design of the future: “We thought it was indestructible […] When there is more hope, we have hope because we are deeply christian. Our country is hurting us, when will it be healed? ” The clergyman, however, managed to snatch a smile from his audience by recalling that General Bigeard, then Minister of the Chirac government, said in 1975 ,“ restrain himself to applaud Roger because he was a minister. " As in evoking this letter from Holeindre, pronounced in the gallery of the National Assembly towards the executive: " You, there are only tennis balls that you have heard whistling above your heads ... "
In the middle of rue Saint Honoré, Roger Holeindre receives a military tribute. His comrades sing the song of Africans under the incredulous gaze of passers-by. pic.twitter.com/RRetcJiwJA
- Charles Sapin (@csapin) February 6, 2020But it is, above all, the words of his friend, Bruno Gollnisch, who will have most deeply marked the audience: "Grognard ... This is how the talented painter Alexandre Barbera-Ivanoff portrayed him so well. A grouchy fellow like a Marshal of the Empire. We only know part of the exploits of this modest hero, strong voice and generous heart, attacks his former colleague of the Assembly, his voice sometimes interrupted by a sob. Now that his parachute has gone up to the sky, we believe that Roger can say, as Paul wrote almost twenty centuries ago: I fought the good fight, I finished the race, I kept the faith . Now the crown of the just is reserved for me. ”
While the coffin of the deceased returned to the street to find the procession before taking him to his last home, a crowd of green and red berets began, on the pavement, as a last tribute, the Song of the Africans.