French presidential candidate Francois Fillon’s conservative Republican party on Sunday apologized for tweeting a caricature of presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron, which Fillon himself said was anti-Semitic. He said the image was “unacceptable” and “evoked the images of a dark period of our history and exploited an ideology that I have always fought against.”
Ils en sont là… Nez crochu, l’alliance du capital et du bolchevisme (la faucille rouge et le cigare),… Même le FN n’oserait pas. pic.twitter.com/xJeq5biJpk
— Raphael Glucksmann (@rglucks1) March 10, 2017
He was referring to anti-Semitic World War Two propaganda dating back to the collaborationist French government. Macron, who is not Jewish, worked for the Rothschilds as an investment banker.
“Politics is tough but it must remain dignified. I will not tolerate my party using caricatures that use the themes of anti-Semitic propaganda,” Fillon tweeted. He noted: “I’ve asked the general secretary of the Republicans to take sanctions against those who gave our movement an image that goes completely against our values.”
Essayist Raphaël Glucksmann tweeted: “They’ve reached this point … hooked nose, the alliance of capitalism and Bolsheviks (the red sickle and the cigar) … Even the [far-right Front National] wouldn’t dare.”
Fillon trails Macron and Marine Le Pen in the polls, and the two are expected to make it to the second presidential round in May.