A fine observer of French political life and a regular contributor to FigaroVox, Maxime Tandonnet notably published André Tardieu. The misunderstood (Perrin, 2019).
Two dramatic events occurred within a few hours of each other: the death of Alban Gervaise, a military doctor who was savagely attacked in Marseilles on 10 May and the extremely serious violence interspersed with attacks on people who disrupted the progress of the final of the Champions League between Real Madrid and Liverpool in Saint-Denis last Saturday – and delayed its kick-off by half an hour.
Le Figaro reported on the Marseille tragedy in the following terms: “
The victim […] was accompanied by his two children aged 3 and 7, attending kindergarten and CP in the Catholic school, whom he had just recovered .
Sitting on a nearby bench, the assailant had emerged from behind before attacking the doctor, stabbing him several times in the chest […] Controlled and disarmed by four passers-by, the assailant had been arrested by the police with a Swiss army knife in his possession […] Already known to the police, but not to territorial intelligence, the suspect allegedly shouted religious allegations during the attack, according to several witnesses”.
Gone are the days when, faced with tragedies of this kind, a President of the Republic almost systematically received the relatives of the victims at the Élysée Palace to show his compassion and national solidarity.
Maxime Tandonnet
The major radio and television media have, it seems, hardly reported on this tragedy (with the exception of continuous news channels such as
CNews
).
The newspapers – apart from the aforementioned article – were not very verbose on this subject.
With the exception of the mayor of Marseille, it seems that little has been heard of other official tributes to the victim.
The fate of his children bruised for life by the vision of their father massacred in front of them, of his widow and his parents does not seem to have moved many people on a national scale.
Gone are the days when, faced with tragedies of this kind, a President of the Republic almost systematically received the relatives of the victims at the Élysée Palace to show his compassion and national solidarity.
The police and judicial treatment of the assassination of Alban Gervaise has so far led to the decision not to retain the terrorist motive.
It would of course be irresponsible to contest this choice, made by professionals, on the basis of the examination of an individual file.
We imagine that the dividing line between psychopathy and bloody fanaticism is not always easy to draw.
Where does madness start and where does it end?
"
Men are so necessarily mad that it would be mad by another madness not to be mad
" wrote Pascal in his
Pensées
.
But beyond this question of the legal qualification of the crime, the extreme barbarity of this gratuitous murder, with daggers, of a 41-year-old military doctor, in front of his young children whom he had just recovered from the he school – a Catholic institution it seems – leaves absolutely no doubt, whatever the motive.
So how to explain, alongside the immense and justified scandal caused by the events in Saint-Denis, the silence or media discretion surrounding the tragedy in Marseilles – despite being extremely violent and cruel?
No doubt we should see a terrifying effect of routine: France has counted, for ten years, more than 250 victims of Islamist terrorism (even if this time, the crime does not fall under the legal qualification of terrorist).
Similarly, unlike the events in Saint-Denis, television cameras around the world were not focused on the street of the little school, the scene of the drama.
The phenomenon we are witnessing is that of a trivialization of absolute evil in daily life.
Maxime Tandonnet
After the bloodthirsty tragedies of the Mehra affair, Charlie Hebdo and the kosher store at Porte de Vincennes, Bataclan, Nice, Saint-Etienne de Rouvray, Marseille station and many others, the phenomenon we are witnessing is that of a trivialization of absolute evil in everyday life.
A Prime Minister declared in 2015: “We will have to get used to terrorism”.
Once again, the qualification of terrorist was not retained but whatever the case, it is indeed bloody barbarism that France "so-called from above", politico-media, tends to get used to.
And that the facts occurred in Marseille, a city particularly affected by the murders, further amplifies this impression of routine.
This omerta is explained by habit,
but also probably by the desire not to deal an additional blow to the "living together" already so battered.
Absurd calculation: media discretion and silence in the face of such a tragedy, especially in the age of social networks, does nothing to appease the feeling of anguish and revolt that emanates from it in the country.
