Pierre Lelouche declared that the UDF deputies who will join Nicolas Sarkozy for the second round of the presidential election “will neither be harkis nor servants (domestics) of the presidential majority; they will have their full place and will be supported during the legislative elections.”
According to the association Generations Mรฉmoire Harkis, which “reserves the right to take legal action,” these remarks constitute “insult and gratuitous discrimination.” The association cannot “let such verbal deviations pass, which consist of imbuing the public opinion with the idea that former harkis and their descendants are doomed to be perpetual sub-citizens, forever auxiliaries.”
On its part, the National Coalition of Harkis is surprised that “the author of a law against racism and anti-Semitism (a text adopted in February 2003 aimed at increasing penalties for racially motivated offenses) could make nearly racist remarks.”
Since then, the UMP deputy has issued public apologies following these “unfortunate remarks” he made, clarifying that a bad controversy had taken root in the presidential campaign.
If that isn’t “bravitude”!
