Louis Aliot wants to silence an anti-racist activist from Collectif

The mayor of Perpignan, Louis Aliot, had filed a complaint for “public insult” a few months ago against Josie Boucher, an associative, trade union and political activist, very active at the local level in the mobilizations against racism and colonialism. Josie Boucher has just learned of her indictment by the vice-president in charge of the investigation at the Perpignan court, for “public insult to a constituted body”, in this case the municipality of Perpignan.

What does the recent candidate for the presidency of the National Rally (RN) accuse him of? Having declared in early March 2022, during a demonstration in support of Ukrainian refugees, that “Ukrainian refugees don’t have much to expect from the fascists”.

This statement, from an activist committed for years to the dignified reception of migrants, regardless of their origin, responded to the communication campaign launched by Louis Aliot with the aim of establishing himself as a great friend and protector of Ukrainians · victims of the war.

He had taken the opportunism to the point of going to Poland himself to repatriate 113 Ukrainian refugees. It is true that, in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and while the RN was in the middle of the presidential campaign, Louis Aliot’s party had to forget its long-standing ties with Vladimir Putin. The party founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen had also urgently had to modify its campaign material as it included a photo of Marine Le Pen, very proud to appear in the company of the Russian president to demonstrate her international stature.

Only a few months before his communication operation behind the backs of the Ukrainian refugees, Louis Aliot had violently opposed the reception of Afghan refugees.

Josie Boucher’s statement made it possible to recall the hypocrisy of Louis Aliot and his party, which for 50 years has continued to hammer out anti-immigration and anti-refugee discourses, making immigrants responsible for every imaginable social problem (unemployment, crime, school failure). , etc.) and having systematically opposed the reception of refugees.

Also, in the summer of 2021, just a few months before his communication operation behind the backs of Ukrainian refugees, Louis Aliot had violently opposed the reception of Afghan refugees, stating: “I don’t see how we would welcome Afghans in Perpignan when we are not able to manage the migrants who already populate our streets and saturate our emergency accommodation”.

It seems, then, that their perception of the capacity of the city of Perpignan to host refugees has evolved suddenly and radically, or more surely that solidarity is at home – as indeed in the entire French right, Macronie included – to a variable geometry, as he claims. the origin, religion or skin color of the refugees, but also according to the political benefits that can be expected to be obtained by publicly showing their solidarity.

But it is above all the fact of being described as a “fascist” that has aroused the anger of the far-right leader. Working for more than ten years to “de-demonize” his party, in full agreement with Marine Le Pen and with the complicity of a good part of the “big” media and political forces, Louis Aliot cannot bear to be sent back to a category which has stuck to the skin of the FN for a long time, because of its history, its international alliances, but also its speeches and its proposals.

The leaders of the FN/RN are also used to such attempts to silence their opponents since Marine Le Pen tried to condemn Jean-Luc Mélenchon when he, in 2011, called him a “fascist”. She had lost a first trial and had then been dismissed both on appeal and subsequently by the Court of Cassation, the latter considering that the words of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, “expressing the opinion of its author, in the context of a political debate, on the subject of the ideas attributed to the leader of a political party, did not exceed the permissible limits of freedom of expression”..

Because it really is about freedom of expression and it is delightful to see how Louis Aliot and Marine Le Pen use the legal route to prohibit their opponents from calling them fascists, while devoting considerable time, in the media, to challenging the bear. “political correctness” in the very name of freedom of expression, constantly stating that “nothing else can be said”.

Here, then, is a singular form of this “cancellation culture” whose specter the right and extreme right constantly wave, claiming that the left, feminists or anti-racists would like to abolish the freedom of expression: to ban certain political categories on the grounds that they would be offensive. Here is a battle of great importance, where it must be firmly stated that it is not up to justice to decide which notion is the most relevant to qualify the ideology promoted by Louis Aliot and the FN/RN. This is part of a fully legitimate debate, not only between historians or political scientists, but also between citizens and between political forces.

Would it be insulting to remember that the FN was founded in 1972 at the initiative of the main French neo-fascist group of the time, the Ordre nouveau?

Above all because, fundamentally, it would be insulting to remember that the FN was founded in 1972 on the initiative of the main French neo-fascist group of the time, the Ordre nouveau, and that most of the first strong men of the FN were ex-col Laborists (like Victor Barthélémy), former Waffen-SS (Pierre Bousquet) or even militants who had gone through the OAS, a terrorist organization?

We must refrain from remembering that Louis Aliot joined the National Front in 1990, in those years when Jean-Marie Le Pen multiplied his anti-Semitic and racist statements, but also the remarks intended to trivialize the crimes committed by Nazis (the famous “point of detail” that would constitute the gas chambers of World War II history)?

We must refrain from mentioning that he never thought of leaving the FN despite the numerous legal convictions of its main leader for “apology of war crimes”, “trivialization of crimes against humanity”, “insidious anti-Semitism” or even “incitement”. to racial hatred, discrimination and violence”?

Finally, we must refrain from mentioning the links of the current RN with identitarian militants or former unrepentant leaders of the GUD (Frédéric Chatillon and Axel Loustau), but also the continued presence within it of former historical leaders linked to the Sorali area (Bruno). Gollnisch), known for Holocaust denial statements (Jean-François Jalkh) or supporters of a pro-Nazi group (Gilles Pennelle)?

Read also> Among the activists of the “new” FN

Louis Aliot’s initiative is part of the new normalization phase of the FN/RN, which we entered with the election of 89 far-right deputies. The statements recently made in the middle of the chamber by one of these elected officials, Grégoire de Fournas, came to remind all those who wanted to forget that racism is at the heart of the ideology of the FN/RN, what the its main leader. he says and regardless of the “respectable” ways she tries to give him.

Of course, the FN/RN does not have a monopoly on racism and xenophobia in the political arena, but this party is its sharpest point, the one that most energetically and consistently promises to return the nation to its “identity” and its “greatness” by putting minorities and immigrants “in their place”, for the benefit of the “authentic nationals” (“The French first”).

We can have no illusions about the match of Marine Le Pen, Jordan Bardella and Louis Aliot: renamed National Rally, it has not changed. It is still a far-right organization, which for decades has sought to reshape and update the ancient legacy of French fascism.

We therefore stand firmly with Josie Boucher, both for freedom of expression, threatened by this new attempt at censorship by those campaigning for emancipation, and also against the extreme right, whose hostility we know fundamental to political freedoms, without which democracy. it’s just an empty word.

signatories

Personalities: Olivier Azam (director), Ludivine Bantigny (historian), Irène Bonnaud (director and translator), Manuel Cervera-Marzal (sociologist), Pierre Dardot (philosopher and academic), Laurence De Cock (historian), Cédric Durand (economist), Bernard Friot (economist), Fanny Gallot (historian), Franck Gaudichaud (university professor at the University of Toulouse), Liliane Giraudon (poet), Alain Guiraudie (filmmaker), Samuel Hayat (CNRS researcher), Razmig Keucheyan (sociologist), Aurore Koechlin (sociologist), Stathis Kouvélakis (philosopher), Mathilde Larrère (historian), Olivier Le Cour Grandmaison (academic), Michael Löwy (emeritus research director of the CNRS), Henri Maler (philosopher) Maguy Marin (choreographer), Gérard Mordillat ( filmmaker and writer), Olivier Neveux (academic), Stefano Palombarini (economist), Willy Pelletier (sociologist), Enzo Traverso (historian), Eleni Varikas (emeritus professor at the University of Paris 8), Jean-Claude Zancarini (Italianist), Michelle Zancarini-Fournel (hi storyteller).

Trade unions: Simon Duteil (co-delegates of the Solidaires union), Murielle Guilbert (co-delegates of the Solidaires union), Philippe Martinez (CGT confederal secretary), Anthony Smith (union representative of the Ministry of Labour), Benoît Teste (general secretary of the FSU)

Associations and groups: Raphaël Arnault (La Jeune Garde), Saïd Bouamama (sociologist and anti-racist activist FUIQP), Lou Chesné (spokesman for Attac France), Christian Delarue (anti-racist and anti-globalization activist), Nacer El Idrissi (President of the Maghreb). Network of the Association of Workers of France / ATMF), Jean-Baptiste Eyraud (spokesperson for the Right to Housing), Camille Gourdeau (co-president of the Federation of Solidarity Associations with All Immigrants / FASTI), Pierre Khalfa (Copernicus Foundation ), Dominique Noguères (vice-president of the League of Human Rights), Alice Picard (spokesperson for Attac France), Omar Slaouti (anti-racist activist and elected municipal official in Argenteuil), Pauline Tétillon (co-president of Survie), Marie-Pierre Vieu ( co-president of the Copernicus Foundation)

Disappeared: Gaëlle Backer (Communist Libertarian Union), Olivier Besancenot (NPA spokesperson), Manuel Bompard (LFI deputy), Frédéric Borras (LFI 31), Marlène Collineau (Deputy Mayor of Nantes, GDS), Gérard Filoche (responsible spokesperson of the GDS), Jean-Marie Fouquer (TOGETHER! Rouen), Jean-Yves Lalanne (mayor of Billère, GDS), Danièle Obonno (MP LFI), Renée Olender (GDS 66), Jean-François Pellissier (spokesperson for ENTENSE! ), Christine Poupin (NPA spokesperson), Philippe Poutou (NPA spokesperson), Pablo Rauzy (Liberal Communist Union) and Aurélie Trouvou (LFI deputy).