Jean-Luc Mélenchon's call for the French to "put Palestinian flags wherever possible", starting Tuesday, October 8, exactly one year after the Hamas attacks in Israel, has been severly criticized on the Left as well as on the Right.
The leader of La France Insoumise (LFI) launched this initiative after warnings from the Minister of Higher Education, Patrick Hetzel. Anxious to avoid possible demonstrations that could degenerate into tensions with the police, as was the case last May in front of the renowned university Sciences-Po Paris, the minister called for the "maintenance of order" to avoid actions that go, according to him, "against the principles of neutrality and secularism".
"The flags that we must carry in public places are the French flags. The rest is propaganda that has no place in public places," former Prime Minister François Hollande criticized Mélenchon on TF1.
The former president of the Republic nevertheless assured that flags could "have their place in the street to express support for this or that cause".
Jean-Luc Mélenchon's initiative strongly displeased the president of Aix-Marseille University, head of one of the largest campuses in France, who deemed the call to unfurl Palestinian flags "dangerous", risking "importing this conflict" within the faculties.
"Of course we regret what is happening in Gaza and Lebanon, but the Jewish students on our campuses have nothing to do with what is happening there and the university must remain a refuge in this storm," the academic added to AFP.