Mélenchon accuses the government of wanting to “make people forget a crime”

Jean-Luc Mélenchon responded to the complaint announced by Minister Sylvie Retailleau. The rebellious leader published a message on X, with vitriolic formulas.

Sylvie Retailleau announced on BFMTV this Sunday that the Ministry of Higher Education was going to file a complaint for “public insult in front of a public official” following the remarks that Jean-Luc Mélenchon made during a meeting in the middle of the street in Lille on the 18th. last April. The former presidential candidate had made a link between the president of the university of the capital of Hauts-de-France and the Nazi Adolf Eichmann. “I did nothing,” said Eichmann. “I only obeyed the law as it was in my country. So they say that they obey the law and they implement immoral measures which are not justified by anything or anyone,” he declared.

This Monday, Jean-Luc Mélenchon retorted on otherwise I would say it without fear of your complaints,” he wrote. To justify himself, he refers to the concept of “banality of evil”, from the philosopher Hannah Arendt, who attended the trial of Adolf Eichmann.

He claims to have simply “denounced the example of his cowardice.” According to Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the president of the university would have given in to pressure. The rebellious leader then attacked the government, recalling his two canceled press conferences in Lille on the subject of Palestine. Sylvie Retailleau had denied any desire to censor the politician's comments, ensuring that this decision was due to a risk of "disturbing public order".

For Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the complaint announced by Sylvie Retailleau is a strategy to divert attention. “Your legal action is a pointless diversion to make people talk about you and forget the crime we are fighting: the genocide of the Palestinians,” he pointed out.

The tweet was relayed by LFI supporters like Eric Coquerel, Rima Hassan and Mathilde Panot who insisted that their “leader didn’t compare anyone to Eichmann, he was talking about the method”. Justice will therefore have to decide on the merits or otherwise of this comparison.

The controversy comes as Rima Hassan and Mathilde Panot will be heard this week as part of an investigation for “apology of terrorism”. The two women also denounce a desire for censorship in the face of “voices raised against the Palestinian genocide”.