Najat Vallaud-Belkacem violences

Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said that the square should be “open to anyone without them being received like this” and Local Authorities Minister Jean-Michel Baylet called on participants to consider where the “magnificent, spontaneous youth movement” was heading.Labour Minister Myriam El Khomri, whose proposed labour reform is one of the Nuit Debout movement’s chief targets, described the incident as “particularly regrettable”, while inviting representatives to meet her. Right-wing politicians joined the condemnation, with Eric Ciotti of the mainstream Republicans calling the demonstrators a “far-left minority that presents itself a representing the people while being closed to the French people’s true problems”.Marion Maréchal-Le Pen of the far-right National Front called Nuit Debout a “movement that represents nobody and nothing”, supported by “young people, school students and students” who “spit on Alain Finkielkraut”.This democracy is a fairy tale, the pluralism a lie,” the philosopher himself declared as he left the square, insisting that he had come to see for himself what was going on but responding bluntly to one woman who was among his tormenters.Finkielkraut, who was a Maoist in his youth, is called a “neo-reactionary” by his critics, largely because of his vociferous support for Israel, his criticisms of Muslims and his complaints that educational standards are declining.