Saturday, March 4th, on the initiative of Jérôme Rivière, deputy of Alpes Maritimes and member of the National Defense Commission, and Muriel Marland-Militello, Deputy of Alpes Maritimes, along with local associations part of the conciliation committee for retirees and friends of the Gendarmerie such as UNPRG (National Union of Retired Gendarmerie Personnel), FNRG (National Federation of Gendarmerie Retirees), SNAAG (National Society of Former and Friends of the Gendarmerie), and Trèfle (Association of Gendarmerie Officers from Melun School), a memorial mass for Gendarme Raphaël CLIN who died on the island of St. Martin will be celebrated at Saint Roch Church in Nice at 10 am (close to the Nau Gendarmerie barracks where Gendarmes who died in the line of duty are honored each year).
This celebration will be followed by a silent march and a laying of wreaths in Nice to express the national community’s outrage over the heinous circumstances of this 31-year-old serviceman’s death, who was married and a father. The announcement of his death on February 12th was marked by collective rejoicing cries and unacceptable racist remarks.
Nice Première met Deputy Jérôme Rivière to get his opinion on this tragic event.
Nice Première: Mr. Deputy, why this demonstration and silent march in Nice?
Jérôme Rivière: The conditions in which gendarme Raphaël CLIN suffered were barbaric and unworthy of our society. The national community cannot remain silent, letting this racist hatred that was publicly expressed in St. Martin on February 12th pass by indifferently. The silent march and the laying of a wreath after the mass is an opportunity to express calmly and with dignity our refusal to see the values of the republic being trampled on.
Together with Muriel Marland-Militello and the member associations of the conciliation committee of retirees and friends of the Gendarmerie, we also thought it was an opportunity to pay tribute to the gendarmes who are still on the front lines fighting against violence.
NP: In your opinion, how should the government respond to this new instance of violence?
JR: I am worried about the rise in violence, but it is not always surprising. Summoned by its minorities to make amends and deny its history, France appears as a nation in a state of cultural coma. Certain periods of our past, of our overseas presence, can no longer be mentioned without sparking aggressive demands, vengeful historical complexes, and victimhood reflexes all combined in the hatred of France and its identity.
This terrible episode in St. Martin is a cruel example.
NP: St. Martin was not accustomed to such actions. Do you have any explanations for these events?
JR: I do not have information supporting that. The gendarmes stationed there report a latent climate of aggression towards them by a part of the population.
NP: Regarding Ilan Halimi, what is your position and your analysis of this barbaric act?
JR: It is high time to recognize the rise in France of a powerful and very violent anti-Jewish, anti-Semitic, anti-republican movement.
Denying it does not protect those who are not Jewish! Asserting it strongly is the beginning of fighting this scourge.
This targeted violence is rising from an increasingly broader fringe of young people who, although French by nationality card, do not pledge allegiance to our country, but to an ideology born from the perversion of Islam. Today, this ideology of intolerance attempts to import the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into France and Europe. This evil is a threat to our values and, of course, to our culture.
NP: Don’t you think that violence is becoming normalized in our daily lives?
JR: I do not believe it is being normalized, but I think it is intensifying.
And you will see, for holding these views, I will once again be vilified by the “right-minded”. Those from the “Paris that sings and dances”, who, in Nice too, impose themselves or try to impose and whose recommendations are read or heard column after column, show after show. It is fashionable to show that all is well and that the problems we were beginning to encounter were not really problems and that a stern, authoritative, Republican speech, I would say, ultimately might be a tremendous demagoguery close to the far right.
Today, instead of defending our identity which we are sacrificing, we prefer to demonize the elected officials who are concerned about the future.
