Two swastikas as well as anti-Semitic slogans calling for violence were graffitied on the statue of the Republic in Paris, Agence France-Presse noted on Monday February 16. The city of Paris told AFP it had filed a complaint “in order to be able to find and prosecute the perpetrators of these unacceptable acts”which the mayor, Anne Hidalgo (Socialist Party), condemns “with the greatest firmness”.
In green letters, it is notably written “Kill the Rothschilds” on the edge of the emblematic monument, on which is still stuck a black and white poster in tribute to Ilan Halimi, a young Jew kidnapped and tortured to death in February 2006.
The municipal police were on site at midday on Monday and filmed the damage reported by The Parisian and which occur in a climate of increase in anti-Semitic acts recorded in France. They have certainly decreased by 16%, to 1,320 in 2025, but “have never been as high as during the last three years” and account for 53% of all anti-religious acts, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
“Climate of violence”
Their sharp rise in recent years follows the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in the Gaza Strip.
“Without prejudging the perpetrators, one thing is clear: swastikas, calls for murder and “Kill the Rothschilds” on the statue of the Republic say something about the current climate of violence. A climate where hatred always ends up targeting Jews”reacted on X the Union of Jewish Students of France (UEJF).
Other inscriptions on the statue of the Republic also aimed “the paedos[criminels] » as well as the former president of the Arab World Institute Jack Lang, whose name is cited in the Epstein affair.
Emmanuel Grégoire, candidate of the united left without LFI for Paris City Hall, denounced “unacceptable damage” and requested that an investigation “be carried out as quickly and calmly as possible, in order to rule out any possibility of foreign interference”.
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