Macron criticized over comments on antisemitic figure Philippe Pétain

• Date: 29 December 2020
• Author: JERUSALEM POST STAFF
• Published date: 29 December 2020

In reaction to his comments, President of the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France (CRIF) Francis Kalifat, the umbrella organization representing French Jews, criticized Macron for his comments for defending Pétain as well as Charles Maurras, leader of Action Française, a neo-monarchist far-right political movement that sympathized with fascism.

"I don't see what the urgency was with [Macron] raising this issue again, and I admit that I am in total incomprehension," Kalifat said to the Jewish broadcaster Radio J on Thursday.

"We cannot bring to light men who have betrayed France or who have been the shame of France by defending the most infamous ideas. I don't see the point of wanting to bring them back into the news," he added.

Macron comments were made in an interview with the French magazine L'Express, where he spoke of issues in French identity and culture.

"In most Western societies, we are witnessing some form of victim primacy. The victim's speech prevails over everything and crushes everything, including that of reason," he said during...