He was the main face of opposition to Vladimir Putin's regime.
Incarcerated in a penal colony in the Arctic where he was serving a 19-year sentence, Alexeï Navalny died this Friday at the age of 47, the Russian prison services announced.
The announcement of the disappearance of the Kremlin's bête noire caused turmoil among the French political class, which unanimously salutes the legacy left by its fight for democracy.
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Emmanuel Macron praised on X the
“memory”
,
“commitment”
and
“courage” of the Russian opponent, whose
“immediate release”
he called for
shortly after his conviction.
“In today's Russia, free spirits are put in the gulag and sentenced to death.
Anger and indignation
,” thundered the head of state.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stéphane Séjourné, for his part presented his condolences on behalf of France
“to his family, his loved ones and the Russian people”.
“His death in a penal colony reminds us of the reality of Vladimir Putin's regime
,” continued the head of French diplomacy, paying tribute to the opponent who
“paid with his life for his resistance to a system of oppression
. ”
Also read “Putin needs war”: the last interview with Alexeï Navalny, who died this Friday in prison
In the presidential camp, François Bayrou was in turn outraged by the disappearance of the former lawyer,
“exposed to the living conditions of the northernmost prison in the Arctic, all to silence him”
.
“Thus end today, in full view of all, the opponents of the dictator
,” professed the centrist.
“He was a true patriot, who loved Russia so much that he wanted a better future for it and who took all the risks for that
,” praised the boss of Horizons, Édouard Philippe, for whom
“ If you can kill a man, you cannot kill his ideas
.
An indignation also shared on the right-wing benches.
“The fight against the old demons of Soviet totalitarianism is not over
,” declared the head of the LR list to the Europeans, François-Xavier Bellamy, accompanying his message with a quote from Solzhenitsyn:
“There are many of us who have the camps made us understand that betrayal, the sacrifice of being good and helpless was too high a price, that our life was not worth it
.
The boss of LR senators, Bruno Retailleau, also sees it as
“a new step towards the return of the red man”
and the
“old totalitarian demons”
of Russia.
Democracy “sentenced to death”
It was more sober that the double-finalist in the presidential election, Marine Le Pen, sent her
“condolences”
to the
“political activist committed to the defense of democracy”
.
“
This is tragic news for all defenders of human rights and fundamental freedoms
,” added the boss of the RN, Jordan Bardella.
A reaction which sparked a wave of comments from the party's opponents, who accused the MEP of not having voted in Brussels for the resolutions condemning the persecutions against Alexeï Navalny.
The left was also moved by the disappearance of the Kremlin's number 1 adversary, while Ukraine will soon enter its second year of war against Russia.
“Honor to the memory of Navalny beyond disagreements.
Honor to his resistance
,” declared Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who describes his death as
“a crime since he is a prisoner of political opinion”
.
“The Insoumis are hosting Russian political refugees
,” he assured.
In a press release, the movement called for reaching out to other opponents of the regime, imprisoned or in exile:
“It is the honor of France to be a land of asylum for some of them.”
“It is the Russian people who are being poisoned by state lies. It is the Russian people who are imprisoned by their own president. It is democracy which is condemned to death a few days before the vote
,” reacted the first secretary of the PS, Olivier Faure, one month before the Russian presidential election scheduled for the end of March.
“Tyrants cannot stand the courage that resists them.
They are scared to death
,” added socialist MEP Raphaël Glucksmann.
The ecologist Yannick Jadot also attacked the master of the Kremlin, who
“reminds us that he allows himself to commit all crimes”
.