Head tilted on his two joined hands, fingers crossed, eyes closed. Xavier Lemoine seems to be praying. It’s just like: sitting in his office at the town hall, he talks about Montfermeil (Seine-Saint-Denis), the city of which he has been mayor since 2002, reelected in the first round in each ballot. Unbreakable. Like a Christ statue in the middle of a church.
But behind the image of a local elected official, recently elected president of the Grand Paris Grand Est territory, a glance at his Twitter account – private – intrigues.
For several months, with frantic retweets, the 60-year-old city councilor (DVD) has been telling the rosary of the perfect conspirator – a term he formally rejects. What detonates in the political landscape of 93: this father of seven children is a fervent – and displayed – Catholic. Tireless defender of Didier Raoult, slayer of the obligatory mask and of a vaccine too quickly arrived on the market, he also appreciated “Hold-up”, the controversial documentary on the management of the health crisis. Not to mention his support with tweets for Catholics defying the ban on gatherings to pray in front of churches. He does not hide his affinities with the RN either, rolling out the red carpet to Jordan Bardella during a show in Montfermeil.
PODCAST. “Hold-up”: conspiracy theory, news, intox … the controversial documentary decrypted
In short: a conspirator at the head of a territory of 350,000 inhabitants? “Conspiracy”: the word irritates him, it refutes him. To summarize the man, we must call his friend of thirty years, Christine Boutin, the former Minister of Housing and founder of the Christian Democratic Party (PCD) of which he was a member until 2017.
For her friend Christine Boutin, “he’s a crusader in Seine-Saint-Denis”
“He is an exceptional, singular man,” she said. A man of conviction, who is not afraid to display his Catholicism by being mayor and living in a… complicated area. “The former minister takes up the qualifier that the newspaper Liberation had chosen for an article on Lemoine:” Xavier Lemoine is a crusader in Seine-Saint-Denis. Be brave… “
The symbolism of war does not make its opponents smile. Farid Kachour, elected opposition and responsible for the mosque of Montfermeil, assures him: “He is a supporter of the religious war. To us Muslims, he caused misery. ” Misery “? Difficulties in opening the mosque and the absence of a Muslim square in the city cemetery, among others.
Newsletter The essentials of 93
A tour of the news in Seine-Saint-Denis and the IDF
—
“He is a supporter of the theory of great replacement(Editor’s note: the hypothesis of some far-right thinkers that the populations of Europe will be gradually replaced by those of Africa), adds Farid Kachour. So how can things go the right way with us? “
In 2006, a statement to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz had ignited the powder. Regarding Muslims, he said: “It’s them or us. If they win we are dead. »
A former mayor who knew him well adds: “He’s an ultra-Catholic! A radicalized. Is it republican to have supported the faithful who prayed in front of the churches illegally, to protest against the gauge of 30 people by place of worship? If it had been Muslims, he himself would have called the police! “
Xavier Lemoine believes his Catholic faith “does not shout it from the rooftops”. Just on his Twitter account, which is overflowing with Bible quotes.
His second religion? Professor Raoult
“Yes, I am a Catholic. So what ? I go to masses in Latin, I do one retreat a year. But I don’t proselytize, ”he retorts. What about the “big replacement” theory? “I prefer to speak of demographic and cultural shift,” replied Lemoine. The difference is slim.
“We must not amalgamate, but face it. I am the guarantor of the freedoms of Muslims who live their faith individually, in opposition to the community and what it wants to impose, ”he said. He is even convinced of it given his municipal scores – 58% in the first round in 2020: Muslims vote for him.
But, in recent months, Lemoine has found a second religion: Professor Raoult, his cohort of controversial ideas and supporters in the fight against the Covid-19 epidemic. He points to his desk: an impressive file of several kilos of articles on the Covid-19 sits between a few initials and religious icons. He speaks of it with the vocabulary of medical knowledge.
” I read. I documented myself. I have also spoken to many doctors, being chairman of the hospital supervisory board. And I’m not in the habit of saying things without having worked on the issue, ”asserts the city councilor.
Wearing a mask, “a sleeve effect to reassure”
So, he says it: according to him, the management of the health crisis is “an economic assassination” of the country by the State, which “did not take the right decisions by confining” and which, above all, produced a ” shameless lie “by” making believe in the ineffectiveness “of the two anti-Covid miracle molecules according to the camp of Professor Didier Raoult – hydroxychloroquine and azythromycin. In June, however, a large study concluded that these drugs were useless.
But, according to him, for what purpose the state would lie on this subject? “I do not know … I see”, sweeps the man. A plot? “I don’t like that word. But we can say that there is a breach of confidence in the government. “
Lemoine also tackles, pell-mell, the compulsory wearing of the mask – “a sleeve effect to reassure”, he judges – and the vaccine, of which he will ask “what is inside before believing it” . But a regular in the area says it: to summarize Xavier Lemoine to a conspirator surrounded by the tricolor scarf would be “reductive”.
“An elected official who has a sense of the general interest”
“He changed his city, for the better,” sums up a left-wing ex-mayor, who specifies “having almost no idea in common” with him. Olivier Klein, mayor (PS) of Clichy-sous-Bois, agrees: “No mayor who works badly is reelected so easily in each election! We have differences on a lot of societal issues. But it is an elected official who has a sense of the general interest, his record speaks for him. “
And when he talks about the balance sheet, Lemoine has faith. “I did everything I had promised in 2002. Starting by restoring dignity to the inhabitants of Les Bosquets, thanks to urban renewal”, explains the one who cites Jean-Louis Borloo as a model. Urban, architectural and public space quality: the man brought down the bars of this insanitary city of 1,500 housing units, built in 1960, to replace it with four-storey residences. ” There is a turn-over of weak inhabitants: people are happy there. It is my pride ”, launches the mayor. There is also the “pacification” of the municipality which is no longer “making the headlines of the various facts”, and the improvement of the educational level of its students. And culture, with the imminent arrival of the Ateliers Médicis.
“I have lived here for thirty years, the city has changed radically. In 2005, there were riots, that was the area. I put my aunt’s address when I sent CVs, remembers Karim, who lives in the city center. Today, I don’t do that anymore. I am neither proud nor unhappy. I just feel like I live in a normal town. “
So, in this landlocked area of 93 where the National Gathering achieves good scores in the national ballots, but without succeeding in anchoring itself locally, the profile seduces the Le Pen party. “He is a mayor who is very close to our ideas, who is not in the political correctness, but in the interest of the citizens”, welcomes Sébastien Jolivet, head of RN 93. A call of the foot in vain. Xavier Lemoine never considered joining the RN: “I hate the systemic spirit that prevails in a party. I am a free man! “
–
