At Sciences Po Paris, Jean-Luc Mélenchon tries to justify himself after the controversies | EUROtoday

Monday April 22, rue Saint-Guillaume in Paris, a welcoming committee is ready firmly for Jean-Luc Mélenchon. During the electoral marketing campaign for the European elections, the founding father of La France insoumise (LFI) should maintain a convention in entrance of Sciences Po college students. Activists from the far-right collective Nemesis got here to brandish indicators “Veil = submission” and chant with the National Interuniversity Union, a radical proper youth group, “Everyone hates Islamists! » Opposite, “rebellious” activists, outfitted with purple flags, reply to them with “Down with the fascists!” »

Sheltered from tensions, within the Boutmy amphitheater, the ambiance is totally totally different. Nearly 800 college students – a determine communicated by the Young Insoumis of Sciences Po, who organized the occasion – ​​welcomed the three-time presidential candidate to thunderous applause.

The pupil affiliation has been dreaming of welcoming their chief for months. A primary assembly was scheduled for October 2023, earlier than being canceled on the recommendation of the Paris Prefecture, which had cited safety dangers. This time, the prefect, Laurent Nuñez, thought of {that a} ban was pointless. Which didn’t forestall Jean-Luc Mélenchon from “thank the management of Sciences Po”, Who “did not give in to pressure”.

A direct reference to his three conferences in universities, which had been canceled in current months: in Bordeaux, in October, in Rennes, on April 10, and particularly in Lille, eight days later. It was on this event that the founding father of LFI returned to excesses, evaluating the president of the Lille college to the Nazi Adolf Eichmann, one of many major perpetrators of the Shoah.

“Never back down, it’s no use”

An notorious parallel which induced turmoil within the political class. On BFM-TV, Monday, the chief of the communists, Fabien Roussel, judged Mélenchon “indefensible”. “His excessive comments discredit everything else”, added the one who has, up to now, additionally paid the value for doubtful comparisons. In September 2023, the LFI MP for Paris Sophia Chikirou, a detailed buddy of Mélenchon, in contrast him to the collaborationist Jacques Doriot.

At Sciences Po, Monday night, the time was now not for vociferations. In entrance of the scholars, Jean-Luc Mélenchon performed the clever previous man, adopting a relaxed, professorial tone, multiplying on this temple of the French elite references to Kant, the Stoics or Colette Audry, a French playwright and activist near Simone de Beauvoir.

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