On May 1, the sixty-year-old recounted in front of the cameras her difficulties in finding a job, on the sidelines of a Jordan Bardella meeting in Perpignan. According to the association, which denies having excluded it, it would have contravened the charter of neutrality.
“We are in a crazy world, and we absolutely have to find a solution. I’m on the RSA and we’re having a hard time living. We are all angry.” A volunteer at Restos du coeur in the Pyrénées-Orientales department, Colombe is a sixty-year-old looking for work. On May 1 in Perpignan, at the entrance to the meeting of head of the list RN Jordan Bardella for the European election campaign, TF1 captures his tears and his dismay. On the Internet, the video goes viral, more than 5 million views. The woman talks about her commitment to the association: “Today, I cannot find work, but I am a volunteer at Restos du coeur.”
The next day, her testimony was taken up by Marine Le Pen, who tweeted: “When certain days the political battle seems difficult to us, it will be enough to think of Colombe. She will always remind us what and who we are fighting for.” On the left too, the woman’s words provoke a reaction. Léon Deffontaines, head of the PCF list for the next European elections, sent him a letter on X accompanied by this text: “Colombe’s words struck me. I decided to write to her to start a dialogue with her. To demonstrate to him that Mr. Bardella and the RN are forgers of the social question and that the left that I represent hears his legitimate anger and wants to respond to it.
“Push towards the exit”?
Among RN supporters, reactions were not long in coming. On ‘a long-time volunteer, who helps people in need, out of pure bigotry.’ Same spirit with MEP Gilbert Collard who describes the association as “sectarian of the heart”. Through her lawyer, Colombe made known her “wish to continue her associative activity and not to become a political symbol”.
“We have no intention of being exploited”
In Le Figaro, Yves Mérillon, national spokesperson for Restos du coeur, assures that the sixty-year-old would have decided to leave on her own. “He was reminded of a principle that is non-negotiable, that is political neutrality. We also remind our volunteers when they are candidates for elections, they do not have the right to report on their volunteering. We have no intention of being exploited by anyone,” he says.
Contacted by Libération, the spokesperson did not wish to communicate further, nor did the managers of the Perpignan branch. This Monday, May 6, a national manager of the association reiterated to TF1: “We just reminded him of the rules. […] Maybe she felt pushed out. And so she left. There is a procedure for excluding volunteers which has not been initiated at all.”
