French politician thanks India for showing support to President Macron against anti-France sentiments

French politician and President of the National Rally political party, Marine Le Pen in a recent tweet has thanked India for showing support to France and the French President Emmanuel Macron, whom Pakistan, Turkey, and many others have targeted for upholding the French people’s right to freedom of expression.

Many Muslim countries have been attacking France over alleged Islamophobia. After the shocking beheading of a teacher for showing Prophet Muhammad’s cartoon in his class, several Islamic leaders instead of criticising the incident have justified it by saying Muslims cannot tolerate anything against their Prophet.

Marine Le Pen is a far-right nationalist leader from France currently serving as President of the National Rally political party since 2011. 

With a representational flag of both the countries, Pen tweeted on October 26, 'Thanks to India and to its government who have just given their support to France facing intimidation to give up its values.'

She shared a link to a report on how Indians came in support of France in response to the calls to boycott French products. While one section was trending #BoycottFrenchProducts on Twitter, Indians hammered out their support and trended #IStandWithFrance as a response.

In an official statement, just 2 days ago, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said, 'We strongly deplore the personal attacks in unacceptable language on President Emmanuel Macron in violation of the most basic standards of international discourse. We also condemn the brutal terrorist attack that took the life of a French teacher in a gruesome manner that has shocked the World. We offer our condolences to his family and the people of France. There is no justification for terrorism for any reason or under any circumstance.'

Marine Le Pen also praised Macron for recalling French Ambassador from Turkey. She tweeted, 'The recall of the French Ambassador from Turkey is a significant act. We cannot say that it is a strong response either because a whole many questions arise of what we do with Turkey.'

On October 16, an 18-year-old Chechen refugee in the suburbs of Paris beheaded a 47-year-old schoolteacher, Samuel Paty, days after Paty had shown caricatures of the Prophet to his students.