Avignon: a political event canceled under pressure from associations hostile to the arrival of Sarah Knafo and François Fillon

The prefect of Vaucluse “regretted” on Saturday the cancellation of a political event, planned for October 17 in a room in Avignon, in the presence in particular of Sarah Knafo, “under pressure” from associations, citing “a real threat to democracy”. Le Rouge-Gorge, a private performance hall in Avignon, which was to host the Universities of the “Dare France” movement of former deputy and vice-president of LR Julien Aubert, announced Friday in a press release that it had “decided not to rent its hall”, facing a risk of “disturbing public order”.

However, “the prefecture contests any proven risk to public order and any inability of the police forces to deal with possible demonstrations,” it said in a press release on Saturday. Prefect Thierry Suquet “regrets that a climate of pressure leads to the cancellation of a political event and poses the risk of a de facto restriction of public debate. Raising the specter of violence to prevent a political meeting is unacceptable and constitutes a real threat to democracy,” he adds.

At the start of the week, around twenty associations, collectives and unions denounced the organization for the third consecutive year of the Oser la France universities at Rouge-Gorge, questioning “the trivialization of certain ideas and their gradual inclusion in places of cultural life”. These associations particularly questioned the participation of MEP Reconquête! Sarah Knafo and former Prime Minister François Fillon.

Questioned by AFP, Julien Aubert questioned the “methods” used by “small-scale collectives”, whose “harassment” and “intimidation” he denounced against the Rouge-Gorge which, according to him, “is a victim” in this affair. He also claimed to have invited “personalities from the right and the left and from civil society” to this event, including the essayist Natacha Polony, the lawyer Juan Branco, the European deputy François-Xavier Bellamy (LR) and the lawyer and former minister Noëlle Lenoir.

“It’s a signal to all private places in Avignon, saying if you welcome people we don’t like, we will weaken you economically,” he said. He said he had found another location – “kept secret to avoid pressure against him” – to accommodate his universities, renamed “resistance universities”.