Perched for long hours at the establishment’s windows, the last students left the Sciences Po premises on Saturday. After three days of blockage, an agreement was finally reached between the management and the hundred or so pro-Palestinian demonstrators. In particular on the organization of an internal debate during which one of the movement’s demands should be addressed: the suspension of the school’s “partnerships with universities and organizations supporting the State of Israel”.
If calm has since returned to the institution on rue Saint-Guillaume, several political figures are not moved away from the concessions granted by the school. “An agreement of shame”, denounced this Sunday by François-Xavier Bellamy, at the microphone of Europe 1. Faced with the “drift” of Sciences Po, the leader of the Republicans (LR) in the European elections asked the government to “stop public funding” paid to the school. “We cannot finance a school which has become the place of entryism, a mixture of leftism and Islamism, which legitimizes anti-Semitic remarks and acts of violence,” the MEP was indignant.
Also read “You are the honor of our country”: how Jean-Luc Mélenchon recovers the pro-Palestinian student movement at Sciences Po
The same day on France 3, Jordan Bardella also pointed out “the painful drift” of the establishment, “which has become a ZAD where all sympathies for far-left causes are found”. In the viewfinder of the boss of the National Rally (RN), the management of the establishment which would have “abdicated” in the face of its students. “We must start by sanctioning the students who flirt today with anti-Zionism which conceals claimed anti-Semitism,” he demanded, while the management has committed not to pursue the blockers.
Controversial slogans also resonated in the procession of students, many of whom hid their faces under keffiyehs. In the middle of Rebellious banners, rebellious candidate Rima Hassan notably chanted one of the controversial songs: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. » “When we leave the river to go to the sea and throw the State of Israel into evidence, these are obviously anti-Semitic remarks,” denounced Éric Dupond-Moretti, guest on BFM on Sunday.
The Minister of Justice pointed out the role of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who “set the university on fire”. A few days before the blockage, the Insoumis leader had stopped off at the prestigious institution during his “college tour”. “They are importing the conflict here,” said the Minister of Justice, while several elected officials from La France insoumise (LFI) went there to support the mobilization.
From the Channel where he was traveling, Gabriel Attal warned on Saturday that “there will never be a right to blockade, never tolerance with the action of an active and dangerous minority which seeks to impose its rules to our students and teachers. At the same time, Rima Hassan called on other political studies institutes to spread the movement throughout France.
On the left, discretion remained the rule among the socialists. Passed by Sciences Po, the head of the PS list, Raphaël Glucksmann, estimated on Friday that the management had “the right to decide to evacuate” the premises, even if he considered the cause “worthy” and “noble”. In an interview with La Tribune Dimanche, PS MP Jérôme Guedj, for his part, deplored the calling into question of partnerships with “Israeli intellectuals, academics”, which must be discussed during the public meeting.
Reverse the position of Olivier Faure, who welcomed the agreement between management and young people who are committed “to justice and peace”. “The dead listen to us, the survivors look at us and we, the living, must carry the voice of our common humanity,” professed the head of the Rose Party.