President said he was against members of far-right RN attending ceremony for Missak Manouchian
The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen is set to defy requests to stay away from a national ceremony to honour a second world war resistance hero.
A
spokesperson for Le Pen described President Emmanuel Macron’s
suggestion she should not attend the event on Wednesday as “outrageous”.
Missak
Manouchian will enter the Panthéon in Paris, France’s mausoleum of
revered historical figures, the country’s highest posthumous honour.
In
an interview with the communist newspaper L’Humanité, Macron said he
was “personally against” representatives from the far-right
Rassemblement National (RN) attending the ceremony.
Last week, RN leaders accepted a request by the family of former minister and laywer Robert Badinter not to attend a national event honouring the man who abolished the death penalty in France.
“As
for Robert Badinter’s homage, for which RN MPs were absent, the spirit
of decency and consideration for history should oblige them to make a
choice. Far-right groups would be well advised not to be present, given
the nature of Manouchian’s struggle,” Macron told the paper.
He
did, however, say the RN was “no longer openly antisemitic and
negationist”, as its predecessor the Front National (FN) had
“resolutely” been.
In response, Le Pen confirmed she would be present
at the Manouchian ceremony. “Despite the outrageous suggestion from the
president, Marine Le Pen will attend the solemn ceremony marking the
nation’s homage,” her spokesperson said. Other members of the RN are
also expected to attend.
Manouchian, born in 1906 in what is now Armenia,
fled the Armenian genocide when he was nine and came to France. He was a
turner at the Citroën factory in Paris and joined the Communist party
in 1934. After war broke out, he led a small group of foreign resistance
fighters to defy the Nazi forces occupying France. The group, including
members from Spain, Hungary, Poland, Italy, Romania and Armenia,
carried out attacks and sabotage raids on German units.
In 1943, 23 members of the group, including Manouchian, were caught and
sentenced to death by a German military court. They were executed by
firing squad on 21 February 1944. A poster issued by the
collaborationist Vichy government of Marshal Pétain justified the
executions by describing the resistance fighters as “foreigners,
communists and Jews”.
Manouchian will be interred at the Panthéon with
his wife Mélinée, who escaped the 1944 round-up, survived the war and
died in 1989.
Jean-Pierre Sakoun, the president
of the committee responsible for Manouchian’s entry to the Panthéon,
said the RN’s attendance was “not one of the greatest pleasures”, but as
a parliamentary party the RN had the right to be there.
“There
is only one question to ask Ms Le Pen: ‘Are you [the RN] in any way the
heirs of a party [the FN] founded by Nazis and collaborationists?’ The
answer cannot be maybe. It is yes or no.”
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