President Macron led a chorus of outrage against a number of 'yellow-vest' demonstrators who screamed anti-Semitic insults in Paris at a 69-year-old philosopher during the 14th rolling weekend of street protests this wezekend, reports The Times.
The abuse of Alain Finkielkraut in Paris was the latest anti-Semitic act to mar the Saturday marches by the movement, which began in November as a rural uprising against Mr Macron.
Mr Finkielkraut, a member of the Académie Française, France’s most august intellectual body, and an initial supporter of the yellow vests, was called a “dirty Jew” and “bloody Zionist” in video broadcast on television.
Mr Macron tweeted: “The antisemitic insults that he has been subjected to are the absolute negation of what we are and what makes us a great nation. We will not tolerate it.
“The son of Polish immigrants who became a French academician, Alain Finkielkraut is not only a prominent man of letters but the symbol of what the Republic allows everyone.”
The philosopher, whose support for Israel and hostility to Islam has generated controversy in recent years, said he had gone to watch the protests on the Boulevard Montparnasse. “I felt absolute hatred and, unfortunately, this is not the first time,” he said. “I no longer back these demonstrations, it’s becoming grotesque. It’s a movement that no longer knows how to stop.”
His abusers appeared to have been a mixture of old-school, far-right antisemites and people from the banlieues who supported the Palestinians, he said. “I’d be surprised if these were original yellow vests because I was one of the only intellectuals to have supported the movement at its start,” he added.
Read more of this report from The Times (limited access before subscription required).