Left and right leaders repudiate the insults uttered to the justice minister in Angers

Credit pictures : Facebook page La manif pour tous

The case of the insults uttered against Christiane Taubira, justice minister, when she was in Angers on October 25th, is still making waves. In town hall, Frédéric Béatse, Angers mayor, was due, through a letter to Mrs Taubira, to apologize on behalf the city : "Those toughen behaviours do not match in no way the tempered nature of our city where debates sometimes liven up but always keep a respectful tone towards individuals. The huge majority of Angevins was particularly shocked with the misconduct of those persons in minority who understood nothing to the history and the trend of our society".

As a result, the Angers section of the Ligue des droits de l'homme called for a demonstration on November 11th against racism in front of the justice hall. For the movement, the insults uttered by children, in their parent's company, against Mrs Taubira because she is black, "are a serious fact, in addition to a serie of similar events which every month punctuate the news". The national leaders of La manif pour tous, which took the initiative of that demonstration, have blamed those words and called for "the respect towards everyone".

The case triggered a local polemic between left and right given that one of the supporters of Christophe Béchu, candidate to Angers mayor office, was among the demonstrators. Mr Béchu said the fact one of his supporters took part, or not, in the demonstration would not change its opinion about the case : "This is absolutely shocking, unacceptable, inexcusable and untenable. Nothing, in a democracy or a republic, can justify that. My repudiation is total and absolute".