François Asselineau, the president of the Republican Popular Union (UPR), does not want to be associated with Florian Philippot or Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, who appeared on the front line during the demonstrations against the health pass on Saturday July 17 in Paris.
The operation is however delicate.
François Asselineau indeed makes remarks similar to those of the two politicians, respectively at the head of the Patriots and of Debout la France. He regularly questions the effectiveness of vaccines, and still has not received his first dose. He believes he had Covid-19 "
at the beginning of last year
", and has since held "
natural immunity
".
Insufficient according to him to make a connection with the positions of Philippot and Dupont-Aignan.
He recalls in this capacity that the UPR is a party "
above the divisions, bringing together people from the left and the right
".
“
Look, Ruffin
is in the same situation
.
A lot of people on the left agree with what I'm saying,
”he adds.
Like him, this rebellious member of France is against the vaccine obligation.
Read also: Ruffin, Philippot, Dupont-Aignan and Asselineau call for demonstrations against the health pass
"
This is Philippot"
Another argument put forward by François Asselineau: he did not walk alongside his two counterparts at the head of the peloton of demonstrators in Paris.
"Factually, I was not at this event, I was very far, in Lille,
" says the enarque. For a rally, too, against the new health measures of the executive, which, according to him, was done in a "
very good-natured
" atmosphere
. One way to demonstrate that he is staying away from the drifts seen last Saturday in Paris. Like these yellow stars raised by some demonstrators, or this call to
"invade the offices of parliamentarians"
.
The leader of the UPR thus judges that it is “
scandalous
” to make comparisons between the Shoah and the new health measures.
"
That's Philippot, that's why I don't want to make an alliance with him,
"
he
adds.
"A pantalonnade"
Despite everything, François Asselineau has not changed his mind.
He reaffirms it,
"the effects of this vaccine, it is still not that obvious"
.
He even mentions a
"pantalonnade"
about the sanitary pass.
“Materially, it's extremely difficult to manage. If you are in a 19,600 m2 hypermarket you can go there without a sanitary pass, and if it is at 20,050 m2, you need a sanitary pass. We risk having threshold effects that turn to the ridiculous. ”
Read also: Covid-19: sovereignists try to unite against the health pass
The lines are not fixed
Positions close to those of Nicolas Dupont-Aignan and Florian Philippot.
Moreover, François Asselineau had signed a letter with them last January.
The trio demanded weekly information from the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, on possible treatments for Covid-19.
"There we controlled the exact scope of the operation, we knew what was going to be said, and who was going to say it,"
he replies today.
All the same, the borders remain porous between these three eurosceptics.
François Asselineau does not formally rule out an alliance to stand up to the government's bill.
“I don't know where we will be in a week,” he
says.