She reacts in turn. The day after the ban by prefectural decree of a conference planned in Lille (North) around the LFI Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Rima Hassan on the Palestinian question, the head of the LFI deputies Mathilde Panot estimated that “there was a serious democratic problem in France.
“We have an attack on democracy which is extremely serious,” she said at the microphone of BFMTV-RMC, saying she was “very worried about the democratic abuses in our country”.
According to the MP, the prefect's decision to cancel this conference - which was initially to be held at the University of Lille - went back "at least" to the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, or even up to " the Élysée”. “Prefects dependent on an authority. They don’t make decisions like that,” she said. The rebellious elected official also added "consider" a legal "request" on the merits of the case, the summary filed by LFI having, according to her, been refused because it was filed too late.
The Northern prefecture had notably justified its decision taken at the beginning of Thursday afternoon by “calls for mobilization launched by several organizations”, which could have led to “gatherings, crowds and clashes on public roads, in a climate of increased geopolitical tensions.” The emergency attack and the necessary security of the Lille - Aston Villa football match at 6:45 p.m. on Thursday also motivated the prefect's decision.
A “threshold has just been crossed” for Manon Aubry
“I don't know if we properly measure the threshold that has just been crossed,” reacted a little earlier this Friday morning, the head of the LFI list in the European elections Manon Aubry on the Télématin set. “What should shock all democrats in this country is that the opposition cannot hold political meetings, especially during the electoral campaign,” she added while calling for the “responsibility of the Minister of the Interior” who, according to her, “could not not be aware” of the decision of the prefect of the North. “Is it impossible, in France, for a political opposition to be able to organize meetings? “, she asked herself.
This Thursday, following the announcement of the decision of the Northern prefecture, Jean-Luc Mélenchon denounced on X (ex-Twitter) “an abuse of power of a banana republic”. A gathering finally took place in the open air on a square in Lille in which several speeches, including his own, followed one another. “Banning us is an incredible crossing of the threshold of political violence,” he said alongside Rima Hassan.
Initially, the conference organized by a student association was to be held at the University of Lille. It was finally banned, the university fearing that the rise in international tensions would not guarantee “the serenity of the debates”, after the recent attack by Iran against Israel.
For his part, the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that he was “in favor of people being able to express themselves freely even though [he fights] their ideas”. He was reacting both to the banning of the conference in Lille and to that of a controversial meeting in Brussels of representatives of the nationalist right, including Éric Zemmour.