According to Emmanuel Macron, it is up to the military institution to appoint Captain Dreyfus general posthumously – archyde

It is a new variation of “at the same time”. Asked about a possible posthumous promotion of Captain Dreyfus, Emmanuel Macron answered no in principle, while acknowledging that this is a special case, Tuesday, October 26, during a “Protestant dinner”.

“Is it up to the President of the Republic to make Dreyfus a general today?” My answer in principle would be no ”, first replied the Head of State, questioned by the Chief Rabbi of France Haim Korsia on this manner of ” to fix “ the Dreyfus affair.

“For a first reason, which would be to avoid trouble”, he smiled. “For a second, more profound, which is that we would then open a possibility for the President of the Republic to restore or degrade anyone depending on the time. Because tomorrow I would have requests from such and such to degrade generals who participated in colonization or in such and such a war. “” The great risk is to revisit the military hierarchy or history, with today’s perspective “, continued the Head of State, during a question-and-answer session with the audience.

But Emmanuel Macron also ruled this case “Singular”. “The difficulty with the Dreyfus case is that you base your remarks on an irrefutable reality which is to reconstitute the career that we have suspended”, he said.

A proposal from Florence Parly

“When hatred comes out of its bed in a society, it takes a long time to come back to it, it suffices to see the years that Dreyfus lived afterwards: forbidden to participate in the pantheonization of Zola, we shoot him and we whitewash the author of the shooting “, he noted.

However, Emmanuel Macron felt that it was not for the President of the Republic to take such a decision. “But it is undoubtedly the military institution, in a dialogue with the representatives of the French people, which can do it, more than the president as a sovereign decision, as a fact of the prince. I think it would be inappropriate. But in pectore (in my heart), it is, the chief of the armies that I am can tell you it », he concluded.

In July 2019, the Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly opened the door to a promotion of Alfred Dreyfus. “One hundred and twenty years later, there is still time for the armies to give Alfred Dreyfus all the honor and all the years that have been taken from him. And I will take care of it personally ”, she had said. LR MP Eric Ciotti then said he was in favor of his promotion to the rank of general.

After Tuesday inaugurating the Alfred-Dreyfus museum open in the Zola House in Médan (Yvelines), Emmanuel Macron participated in a charity dinner organized by a network of Protestant entrepreneurs. The president of the Protestant Federation of France François Clavairoly defended values ​​such as welcoming foreigners and sharing wealth.