This awarding of the city’s medals by Louis Aliot, on October 13, had sparked controversy and an open letter in Liberation by historians Denis Peschanski and Renée Poznanski, who described this episode as “sad and serious”.
Claiming to understand the controversy, the 87-year-old historian and lawyer, who appears in the memory of the Shoah, told France Inter that “the general interest should also be taken into account.”
“When I see an evolution in an extreme right, when I see people who join our values, who condemn, as Louis Aliot did, the Vel d’Hiv raid (…), who respect the memory of the Holocaust (… .), well, I can only see it,” he said.
Always opposed to a “conservative and reactionary movement”
“The DNA of any far-right party is anti-Semitism. However, I see that there is an evolution in some and I push for this peaceful evolution,” he continued. He said that he would rather see “the extreme right turn to the right, evolve into the Republican camp than see the right go over to the extreme right.”
Louis Aliot, who is running for president of the RN, is “conservative, he is certainly reactionary,” added Serge Klarsfeld, assuring that he will continue “opposing a movement that will be conservative and reactionary.”
“What I want to say today very simply is that he was a political enemy, today he becomes an adversary (…), so there is an evolution,” continued the octogenarian.
“He did not go to Perpignan to see Louis Aliot,” but to decorate the representative of his association in Perpignan with the Legion of Honor, he added. “The mayor was there for this ceremony and offered us (him and his wife Beate Klarsfeld) the Perpignan medal of honour.”
Source: BFM TV
