“It's written in advance.
The simple formula comes up regularly in conspiratorial arguments to support the hypothesis of an organized event, predicted in advance, serving part of the "system" or the political class.
Sunday, she slipped into a monologue by the deputy La France Insoumise (FI) Jean-Luc Mélenchon, guest of the program
"Political questions"
of Franceinfo, France Inter and Le Monde.
Taking examples in the past, the candidate for the next presidential election predicted the occurrence of a "very serious event which will once again allow pointing the finger at Muslims and inventing a civil war" a few days before the next. presidential election.
He, to illustrate his point, recalled three various facts that occurred a few weeks before the presidential term.
The killings in Toulouse and Montauban perpetrated in 2012, the attack on the Champs-Elysées in 2017, or the assault on a retiree, Paul Voise, at his home in Orléans in April 2002. Irony or prediction?
His insinuation, to say the least risky, subject to many interpretations, earned him criticism from all sides.
What exactly did Jean-Luc Mélenchon say?
“You will see that in the last week of the presidential campaign, we will have a serious incident or a murder, began Jean-Luc Mélenchon without being directly questioned on this point.
It was Merah in 2012, it was the attack last week on the Champs-Élysées… Before, we had Papy Voise, whom no one has ever heard of after.
All that is written in advance.
"
"Please, represent yourself!"
launches @JLMelenchon to Emmanuel Macron.
"At least with him, he will have a balance sheet, we will have something to say."
#QuestionsPol pic.twitter.com/nScvZVVXkv
- France Inter (@franceinter) June 6, 2021
And the LFI deputy to rush into this speech without being questioned or repeated: "We will have the little character out of the hat, we will have the extremely serious event which will once again make it possible to point the finger at Muslims and to invent a civil war, there you have it, it’s all wrong, ”he concludes.
What do we blame him for?
It is first among the relatives of the victims of attacks, in the name of the memory of the latter, that the words of Jean-Luc Mélenchon aroused indignation.
For Latifa Ibn Ziaten, mother of the soldier Imad Ibn Ziaten killed in 2012 by Mohammed Merah, these remarks "are inadmissible and should not even be made".
“Respect is a minimum for the honor of my son, other victims and bereaved families,” she said on Twitter.
The words of Jean-Luc Melenchon are inadmissible and should not even be kept.
I am the mother of Imad, a soldier who died standing in the face of obscurantism in March 2012. Respect is a minimum for the honor of my son, other victims and bereaved families.
https://t.co/AxU9OiVOMe
- Latifa Ibn Ziaten (@LatifaIbnZ) June 6, 2021
Other relatives of victims of attacks were moved by such a statement.
"Samuel Sandler took these words as a spit on the grave of his family and on his own face and I understand it", commented this Monday morning on BFMTV master Patrick Klugman, the lawyer of this father and grandfather of victims by Mohammed Merah.
This Monday begins the trial of the attack on the Champs-Elysées, during which the police officer Xavier Jugelé was killed, an attack to which Jean-Luc Mélenchon also referred.
“These words are inflammatory and thoughtless.
I am sure of one thing: these are not the words of a statesman ”, commented this Monday morning on BFMTV Etienne Cardiles, widower of the officer.
Read also Presidential 2022: Jean-Luc Mélenchon alone and against all
On the side of political opponents to Jean-Luc Mélenchon, it is less the memory of the victims than the rhetoric deemed conspiratorial that shocks.
: Mélenchon would suggest, according to them, that these attacks could have been orchestrated by the authorities.
On the right, the mayor (LR) of Nice Christian Estrosi denounces a speech "unworthy, shameful, pathetic" and pins a candidate for the supreme office who according to him "drifts towards the worst conspiracy theories".
After attacking our police, Jean-Luc Mélenchon drifts towards the worst conspiracy theories.
By his words, he comes to sully the memory of the French victims of Islamist barbarism.
It is unworthy, shameful, pathetic.
@franceinter @franceinfo #QuestionsPol pic.twitter.com/llF1Fkqn75
- Christian Estrosi (@cestrosi) June 6, 2021
In the majority, members of the government also spoke to condemn, like the Minister Delegate to the Minister of the Interior in charge of Citizenship, Marlène Schiappa, the "conspiratorial remarks" of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. The Minister Delegate in charge of Public Accounts Olivier Dussopt denounces for his part “unworthy” insinuations and an “incredible insult for the victims of Merah and for Xavier Jugelé”. "The insinuation is the negation of democracy", for his part launched the Secretary of State for European Affairs Clément Beaune, regretting the "sad moral collapse" of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
As irreconcilable as it is unforgivable.
Such insinuations are unworthy, especially when one is so cultured, and above all an incredible insult for the victims of Merah and for Xavier Jugelé.
https://t.co/g22aEVihVV
- Olivier Dussopt (@olivierdussopt) June 6, 2021
On the left, the president of the PS deputies Valérie Rabault believes that such “demagoguery” prevents Jean-Luc Mélenchon from “claiming the presidential election”.
The first secretary of the Socialist Party (PS), Olivier Faure, contented himself with retweeting, without commenting, the reaction of Latifa Ibn Ziaten.
The International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra) spoke on Twitter to describe "a detestable business that is based on a simplistic and opportunistic way of thinking, which every responsible citizen must denounce".
This way of explaining the past and predicting the future has a name: #complotism.
It is a detestable goodwill that is based on a simplistic and opportunistic way of thinking, which every responsible citizen must denounce.
#Melenchon #falseflag #Merah pic.twitter.com/bOo5JeCYAg
- Licra (@_LICRA_) June 6, 2021
How does Jean-Luc Mélenchon defend himself?
No question of making an apology: late Sunday evening, Jean-Luc Mélenchon spoke on his networks to denounce "the era of post-truth" which harms him and the "harassment" of which he claims to be a victim.
“A distressing buzz,” he comments.
What did he mean then?
"Let the assassins do their thing when they are talking about them," he said on Monday.
From a distressing buzz.
Post-truth in action.
➡️ https://t.co/ZxPJqD3iVr pic.twitter.com/McA399lRjm
- Jean-Luc Mélenchon (@JLMelenchon) June 6, 2021
The support of Jean-Luc Mélenchon is in any case categorical: it is not the occurrence of these acts that he finds opportunistic but it is their political recovery.
"What is" written in advance "is not" the incident "but its instrumentalization!
»Says Adrien Quatennens on Twitter.
Can he be sued?
Maître Patrick Klugman, Samuel Sandler's lawyer, announces that he will file a complaint if Jean-Luc Mélenchon does not withdraw his remarks. "The law provides for an offense of broadcasting false news, when you broadcast something obviously false, which aims in particular to disturb public order", argues the council on BFMTV. If Jean-Luc Mélenchon does not retract (...) we will report these comments to the public prosecutor, because at a given moment it is a matter of public responsibility, it is the responsibility of public speech, ”he said. - he announced this Monday morning on BFMTV.
A "serious incident, a murder" "written in advance".
If @JLMelenchon does not withdraw his remarks, I received a mandate to denounce to the prosecution his indecent comments to qualify the Islamist and anti-Semitic attack which took the life of S Sandler's son and grandchildren on 03/19/2012.
- Patrick Klugman (@PKlugman) June 6, 2021