To go or not to go? Since the announcement, on the evening of Tuesday, November 7, that a "great civic march" against anti-Semitism would take place this Sunday in Paris, President Emmanuel Macron has been on the fence. Informed on Monday of the initiative spearheaded by Yaël Braun-Pivet, the president of the Assemblée Nationale, and Gérard Larcher, the president of the French Sénat, the head of state has been leaning towards not attending the march in person. But he plans to express himself on the subject between now and Sunday, in one form or another.

The question of his participation in an event led by two major players in the French political establishment, one left-leaning (Braun-Pivet) and the other conservative (Larcher), is a dilemma for Macron. It comes as the country faces an upsurge in anti-Semitic acts since Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, with more than 1,000 recorded since the beginning of the conflict.

"It would be great if Emmanuel Macron could be there, as it would give the event a historic dimension," said Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions, on November 9. "We need this march because Jews in France need to hear the cry from the heart, the solidarity, the outpouring of fraternity from the French towards them in the face of anti-Semitism," he insisted.

Two former presidents of the Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, several former prime ministers (Jean-Marc Ayrault, Manuel Valls, Bernard Cazeneuve, Edouard Philippe), and the presidents of the Assemblée Nationale and the Sénat will be at the front of the demonstration, which starts at 3 pm on Sunday from the Place des Invalides. Valls said that "the presence of the President of the Republic would give this march a sense of national unity, and a dimension of overcoming divisions."

Jonathan Guémas, the response director of Macron's Renaissance party, said "the real question is whether the place of a president is to be among the French or in action, setting the state in motion." In his view, "both positions are equal." Before Macron, two presidents of the French Republic, in a moment of great tension, had considered that their place was "among the French."

On May 14, 1990, François Mitterrand marched against racism and anti-Semitism, following the desecration of the Jewish cemetery in Carpentras, southeastern France. An old friend of Israel but also the author of a Knesset speech in March 1982 in which expressed his support for a Palestinian state, Mitterrand demonstrated that day alongside the entire political class − with the exception of the far-right Front National − against an act which was then seen as a resurgence of the far right.

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