The French president, Emmanuel Macronthis Thursday called for unity in the face of what is happening in Israel, showed its solidarity with Israel and said that Paris will do everything possible to ensure that the 17 missing French (most are suspected to be Hamas hostages) “return safely.” He has also issued a warning to those who “confuse the Palestinian cause with the justification of terrorism: they commit a moral, serious and strategic fault,” he said, clearly referring to La Francia Insumisa, a left-wing party whose ambiguity when it comes to condemning Hamas’s attacks have bothered the rest of the parties.
In a televised message, the president has confirmed the death of 13 national citizens in the country. It is the first time that he has expressed himself after the Hamas attacks last Saturday, although, along with other European leaders, he had already shown his solidarity with Israel.
Before the message, Macron had met with the opposition parties, a meeting, he said, “of pluralism, harmony and unity.” It lasted two hours and the formations conveyed to Macron his concern about the fate of the missing. He has let them know that “communications with intermediaries” have been established to try to free them. Paris’s position is not to negotiate with terrorists.
“In the moment we live in we must condemn terrorism and denounce all forms of hate”, Macron said in a message that barely lasted 10 minutes. Macron wanted to convey an image of unity, at a time when anti-Semitic attacks are increasing in the country (a hundred since Saturday) and, above all, after the controversy opened by the radical left party La France Insoumise (LFI), which has not classified Hamas as a terrorist group nor has it explicitly condemned the attacks. This position has caused a lot of controversy and has deepened the fracture within the left-wing coalition that they lead in the Assembly, of which the Socialist Party is also a part.
France fears that the conflict will be imported into its territory: Since Saturday there have been a hundred anti-Semitic acts and 41 arrested for it, as confirmed by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin. In France lives the most important Jewish community in Europe: half a million people. There are also 10% Muslims. According to Darmanin, there is currently no terrorist threat.