New degradation of a stele in honor of Simone Veil in Brittany – archyde

A stele erected in honor of Simone Veil (1927-2017) was once again degraded, Saturday, August 14, in Perros-Guirec, in Côtes-d’Armor (Brittany), said the prefect Thierry Mosimann in a statement.

“According to the latest information available, this act was committed this morning (Saturday) after 8 o’clock. The resources of the gendarmerie are fully mobilized in order to find the culprit (s) “, specifies the press release, calling on any person likely to have information to contact the gendarmerie.

The gendarmerie had already launched a call for witnesses after a previous degradation in the middle of the week. Monday, August 9, the monument had already been soiled with mustard and excrement. Wednesday August 11, he was found covered with swastikas.

The prefecture does not specify the nature of the damage committed this time.

“We will never allow anti-Semitism to take hold. For Simone Veil, whose stele has been desecrated, to all of you, I want to repeat it: France will not retreat ”, wrote on Twitter the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, following this new desecration.

“Inadmissible” and “incomprehensible”

Installed on the forecourt of the town hall, renamed “Parvis Simone-Veil “, the stone was inaugurated in November 2017. Quoted by the daily West France, the mayor of Perros-Guirec, Erven Léon, regretted an act on Wednesday “Inadmissible” and “Incomprehensible”.

“Simone Veil is a French and global figure in women’s rights, in Europe and in the fight against anti-Semitism. To degrade its stele is to degrade France! These abject acts must not go unpunished ”, for his part reacted the Minister Delegate to the Ministry of the Interior, Marlène Schiappa, on Twitter.

The International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra) had also expressed “His deep disgust for these cowardly and abject facts”, adding: “Everything must be done so that their perpetrators are identified, tried and convicted”.

Simone Veil, who was deported to Auschwitz at the age of 16, notably left her name in 1975 to the law legalizing voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion). From 1979 to 1982, she was President of the European Parliament. Elected to the Académie Française in 2008, she was also President of the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah from 2001 to 2007.