Le Pen, Zemmour Highlight Death of Jewish Man Chased By Mob in Final Days of Presidential Election 1st Round

In the final days of the campaign for the first round of French presidential elections, right-wing hopefuls Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour have both highlighted the death of a Jewish man who was chased by a mob and hit by a tram.

Initially, it was thought that 31-year-olf Jewish man Jeremy Cohen had been accidentally killed after being run over by a tram in Bobigny, north of Paris in February but a video later emerged showing Cohen being beaten and chased by a mob of around ten people just prior to his death.

Conservative pundit and presidential candidate Eric Zemmour wrote on Twitter about the footage earlier this week suggesting the attack may have had antisemitic motives.

“The images of the death of Jeremy Cohen are chilling. The death of yet another of our children and the deafening silence on the facts for two months revolt me. Did he die to escape scum? Did he die because he was a Jew? Why is this case hushed up?” Zemmour wrote Monday. 

On Tuesday Gérald Cohen, the father of the deceased man, met with Zemmour at his campaign headquarters and thanked Zemmour for highlighting the case in the media. Mr Cohen had previously written to Zemmour, asking if he could help the family, also noting his son had a slight mental disability. 

Populist candidate Marine Le Pen also commented on the death of Cohen this week stating, “It’s not an accident just look at the video. This is obviously a criminal act,” and called for an investigation into the case by the French parliament.

Le Pen also stated, “Jeremy has just been added to the long list of the ‘ensavagement’ of society that we have been denouncing for years,” describing the growing issues of insecurity in France, which led some former military officials to warn in a letter that the country was teetering on the brink of civil war last year.

Following the publication of the letter, a poll found that half of the French public would support the military intervening to restore order in France, even if the government of the day did not ask them to do so.

“At the end of February, Jérémy Cohen was assassinated, crushed under a tram in his flight following the beating by a gang. What was presented as an accident could be an anti-Semitic murder. How to explain the silence on this affair and its motivations?” Le Pen wrote on Twitter on Monday.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who has refused to take part in any of the presidential debates ahead do the first round of the election, called for clarity on whether or not the case had been an antisemitic attack and expressed solidarity with the family of Cohen.

The first round of the French presidential election is set to take place this weekend and polls indicate that President Macron will win the first round and that Marine Le Pen is the most likely candidate to face him in the second round of voting, a repeat of the 2017 presidential election.

In second-round run-off polls, Le Pen has also gained ground on Macron, with a recent poll putting Le Pen at 48.5 per cent against the current president, just a few percentage points from the total needed.

 

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.