The Minister of the Inside, Gérald Darmanin, on July 7 visited Port-Sainte-Marie to pay tribute to gendarme Mélanie Lemée. – AFP
A comparability that doesn’t go. The controversy swells this Monday after the printed on social networks of statements by Mayor EELV of Colombes (Hauts-de-Seine) Patrick Chaimovitch evaluating the police to the Vichy police.
“The French police officers, the French gendarmes who obeyed the orders of their superiors by implementing the Vel d’Hiv roundup and other roundups after and elsewhere are the ancestors of those who today with the same zeal track down the migrants, undocumented migrants (…) ”, declared the town councilor on July 19, based on a video circulating on social networks, shot throughout a commemoration of the Vel d’Hiv roundup.
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“Regrets” and “support for police and gendarmes”
In a press launch despatched to AFP, the mayor stated “to regret that (s) one proposal could have caused confusion” and recollects his “support for the police and gendarmes who exercise the heavy republican responsibility for security in extremely difficult conditions” .
“For me, there is no possible comparison between the police and gendarmerie of a democratic state on the one hand, and the police and gendarmerie of the Pétainist state on the other,” he insists, refuting any parallel between “The fate of migrants” and that of “the Jews destined for extermination”.
Controversy and menace of grievance
Sunday, the Minister of the Inside Gerald Darmanin had denounced “scandalous and unbearable remarks” in the direction of the police and the gendarmerie, threatening to file a grievance in the event that they had been properly confirmed.
“This mayor barely elected in Colombes, by his infamous words, now embodies the shame of the Republic and already dishonored his mandate,” denounced the union of nationwide police commissioners on Twitter. “He dishonours his mandate. It’s a disgrace for the Republic. Examine the present cops with these of the Vichy regime: it’s unworthy (…), additionally tweeted the unbiased union of police commissioners.
A number of right-wing elected officers together with the president of the IDF area Valérie Pécresse had been moved by these remarks. “Insane and scandalous comparison of the mayor EELV of Colombes: our police would act like the police of Vichy! The state must file a complaint (…), ”she tweeted.
