Attacked by demonstrators after a press conference in Montreal, Canada, Emmanuel Macron was accused of supporting Israel and not doing enough to stop the war in the Middle East.
“Shame on you.” “Macron resignation”. It was with these words that Emmanuel Macron was greeted by dozens of demonstrators as he took a walkabout in Montreal following a press conference with the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, on Thursday September 26. The President of the Republic was taken to task over the conflict in the Middle East, especially in relation to the assaults and strikes organized by Israel in the Gaza Strip and against the Lebanon. “You have blood on your hands,” a demonstrator even said to Emmanuel Macron, accusing him of complicity with the Jewish state.
Referring to a “genocide” to speak of the assaults carried out in the Gaza Strip, the demonstrators prayed Emmanuel Macron to oppose it: “You can stop it. […] You can put pressure on Israel.” Some have even accused the French authorities of supporting, even indirectly, these offensives by emphasizing that “France sends money and weapons that kill innocent people.” The President of the Republic He is immediately prohibited from supporting Israel’s attacks: “Let’s be clear, we are not selling weapons, we are asking for a cease-fire. He also recalled having gone to the Security Council.” of the UN, and having sometimes summoned it, with the aim of defending a ceasefire. Also questioned on the extension and escalation of the conflict in Lebanon, he recalled that he was opposed to what Lebanon. “become a new Gaza”. “There must not, there cannot be war in Lebanon” he had already declared the day before before the UN General Assembly.
If Emmanuel Macron denied sending weapons to the Jewish state, military equipment is indeed sent by France to Israel. The Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, however reassured last March that France exports to the Jewish state only “defensive” equipment or intended for “re-export”. And when a media investigation Disclosed revealed that “France secretly equips machine guns used by the Israeli army”, in particular “light automatic rifles of the M249 and FN Minimi type” and “at least 100,000 pieces of cartridges for machine guns”, the minister declared that this equipment is only intended for re-export.
After recalling his position in favor of a ceasefire, both with the Gaza Strip and with Lebanon, Emmanuel Macron returned the ball to the court of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has already rejected this idea in a statement about. The President of the Republic pointed out “a fault” and a “responsibility” of the Jewish State in a potential escalation of the conflict.
“We must all work together and decide what we are going to do to engage all countries in the region to stop terrorist groups,” Emmanuel Macron continued to the demonstrators. But here again he found support with a demonstrator believing that Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement behind the October 7 attack, was “not a terrorist group but a resistance group”. A speech motivated by emotion, but deemed “unacceptable” by the French head of state. who refuses to “let anything and everything be said”.
The minutes spent exchanging with the demonstrators did not succeed in changing the course of the discussions and Emmanuel Macron showed himself frustrated by this failure in a sentence slipped to the press, including BFMTV : “If they knew how much we fight to make things better.” “I understand the emotion, I share it. But afterwards, we cannot help but feel a form of injustice when we feel taken to task. We see it everywhere, in France it is also very true” a- he finally added.