The National Assembly unanimously approves the elevation of Alfred Dreyfus to the rank of "brigadier general"

On Monday, MPs unanimously approved a bill by Gabriel Attal, "elevating Alfred Dreyfus to the rank of brigadier general," an "act of reparation" aimed at completing his rehabilitation, 130 years after his conviction.

The text was adopted by all 197 deputies present, in front of members of Alfred Dreyfus's family. It is now expected to continue its journey to the Senate.

"With our vote, the Republic will right a wrong, the one that officer Dreyfus had to endure in 1906," even though he had been cleared during the adoption of a law that "did not reinstate him to the rank that was rightfully his," stated the rapporteur, the deputy for Bas-Rhin, Charles Sitzenstuhl (Renaissance), in his introductory remarks.

A "gesture (...) all the more significant" as it comes in a context "where acts of anti-Semitic hatred are experiencing a worrying increase," stressed the Minister Delegate for Remembrance and Veterans, Patricia Mirallès.

Several sites linked to the Jewish community, including the Holocaust Memorial, were sprayed with green paint this weekend . The presidents of the National Assembly and the Senate, Yaël Braun-Pivet and Gérard Larcher, announced they would visit the memorial late Monday.

In 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason and forced into exile on Devil's Island in French Guiana, based on false accusations fueled by deep-rooted anti-Semitism in late 19th-century French society.

In 1906, a ruling by the Court of Cassation cleared him of the charges, automatically leading to his reinstatement in the army. Subsequently, a law appointed him squadron leader, effective the day the law was promulgated. This was an "injustice," as it amounted to cutting "five years of advancement" from his career, Charles Sitzenstuhl emphasized.

Alfred Dreyfus himself asked to have his career upgraded, but was unsuccessful, and left the army in 1907 - before serving again during the First World War.

The question of the full rehabilitation of Alfred Dreyfus "has long been hidden and ignored, outside of his family and specialists in the case," notes the rapporteur.

A step was taken in 2006, during a tribute from the Nation in his honour: the President of the Republic Jacques Chirac then recognised that "justice (had not) been completely done to him", and that he had not been able to "benefit from the career reconstruction to which he was nevertheless entitled".

The Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, also mentioned it in 2019. Two years later, President Emmanuel Macron considered that it was "undoubtedly up to the military institution, in a dialogue with the representatives of the French people" to appoint Dreyfus general posthumously.

Several parliamentary initiatives have also been taken in recent years, by the right in the Assembly and the Senate, and more recently by Socialist Party Senator Patrick Kanner, in response to a mid-April column by the first president of the Court of Auditors, Pierre Moscovici, the former secretary general of the Élysée, Frédéric Salat-Baroux, and the president of the Maison Zola-Musée Dreyfus, Louis Gauthier. On Monday, all the group's speakers joined forces to support the measure.

"If this bill is to be supported, it is to remind the public, and especially our youth, that anti-Semitism is like a hydra that can constantly reappear in new guises, but is just as dangerous," argued RN MP Thierry Tesson, whose party has constantly pledged its commitment to combating anti-Semitism.

In a more polemical tone, LFI MP Gabriel Amard responded by castigating those who "raise their hands today, as if they had been Dreyfusards," while "sniggering in the shadow of digital swastikas." "In my family, we are descended from Dreyfusards, not in yours," he said, also calling for people not to use "anti-Semitism as a javelin," an allusion to the accusations leveled at Insoumis leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

PS MP Aurélien Rousseau, on behalf of his group, said that "it is at the Pantheon that this Captain, General Dreyfus, and his wife should be welcomed."

Asked about this hypothesis, the President's entourage stated on Sunday that his "concern" was "at this stage, to uphold the values ​​of Dreyfusism, a fight that is still relevant today for truth and justice, against anti-Semitism and arbitrariness."

The only dissonance: the MoDem group was absent on Monday, not intending to "allow some people to buy cheaply, and on the memory of Alfred Dreyfus (...), a certificate of good repute", as it explained in an article in Le Figaro last week.