Macron to skip anti-Semitism march amid political bickering, but will attend in ‘thoughts’
French President Emmanuel Macron said he would not join a march in Paris against anti-Semitism on Sunday, but would attend it in his "thoughts". Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said she plans to attend the rally, triggering a round of bickering by political parties amid a surge in anti-Semitic incidents across France.
Tens of thousands of people are expected to march in Sunday's rally against anti-Semitism. More than 3,000 police and gendarmes will be deployed in the French capital to maintain security at the "great civic march", according to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.
Macron said Saturday that he would not join the rally, but would attend in his "thoughts".
"I'll be there in my heart and in my thoughts," said Macron, after warning that anti-Semitism was on the rise again in France.
In an open letter published in the daily Le Parisien on Saturday evening on the eve of the march, Macron condemned the "unbearable resurgence of unbridled anti-Semitism" and said that "a France where our Jewish fellow citizens are afraid is not France".
France has recorded nearly 12,250 anti-Semitic acts since the attack.
National Assembly speaker Yaël Braun-Pivet and Gérard Larcher, the Senate speaker, called Tuesday for a "general mobilisation" at the march against the upsurge in anti-Semitism.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)
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