“Mélenchon and his friends are the rentiers of anger”, accuses Véran

Government spokesman Olivier Véran denounced Monday the attitude of Jean-Luc Mélenchon and LFI, “rentiers of anger” according to him, who are “ready to undermine our institutions”, after the violence in Sainte-Soline this weekend or in the mobilizations against the pension reform.

“Jean-Luc Mélenchon, he is rebellious in the face of police violence, but he is submissive in the face of all other forms of violence and you know why? Because Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his friends are the rentiers of anger, the rentiers of the misery of the little people and they are the shareholders of these forms of violence”, attacked the minister on BFMTV and RMC.

Mr. Véran accused them of being “ready to undermine our institutions for the causes they serve”.

He judged “unacceptable” and irresponsible” the participation on Saturday in the prohibited demonstration in Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres), against the megabasins, of elected officials “essentially from the far left, wearing the scarf”, who “explain that the problem (of the violence) is the police”, despite the “presence of hundreds of people who come from abroad to break the police”, according to him.

A demonstrator is between life and death after violent clashes with the police, for which authorities and organizers reject responsibility against a background of opposition to a project to retain water.

“It is not an offense to participate in a prohibited demonstration, everyone makes their choice, I think the cause is just”, replied on RTL the deputy Clémence Guetté, who was one of the elected LFI present on Saturday.

“Without the BRAV-M, without this circus, absolutely nothing would happen but a march in the fields,” LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon criticized on Twitter.

“We respect the institutions, where some try to attack them sometimes with petanque balls, sometimes with angry tweets or sometimes with happenings in the hemicycle, with a continuum between the violence expressed in the National Assembly and the one that can be found in the street”, lamented Olivier Véran.