Paris (AFP)

"I have the right to be afraid", declared Friday Jean-Luc Mélenchon during the trial of the ultra-right group OAS (Organization of social armies), where six men are judged for plans of attacks and whose founder had mentioned, among the potential targets, the leader of rebellious France.

At the helm, Jean-Luc Mélenchon criticized "the authorities" who "did not warn" him, according to him, of a threat.

“I do not know how much I have been personally threatened, I just know that I find out about this affair in the press”, after the cell was dismantled in October 2017. “My first cause for anxiety is: why do not m did we say anything? "

"In my life as an activist, there is a before and an after this affair", explains Mr. Mélenchon, who "no longer travels without security" and asked to become a civil party in this case.

But for defense lawyers, as for the prosecution, his request must be rejected.

According to the prosecutor, unlike other targets envisaged, "the violent action project targeting Mr. Mélenchon is based on statements", and not on "logistical and technical elements".

In 2017, Logan Nisin had declared in police custody to have considered attacking Mr. Mélenchon during a meeting in Marseille.

Since then, he says he has fabulated.

The investigations "did not show a beginning of execution" of this project, also noted the president of the chamber.

"Would you like to become a civil party anyway?"

he asks M. Mélenchon.

"I think it has an interest, if only to challenge the authorities," replies the leader of the Insoumis.

"You are there to settle a score with the authorities", then scolds Gabriel Dumenil, a defense lawyer, accusing Jean-Luc Mélenchon of wanting to make a political "speech".

Shortly before the hearing, the presidential candidate, who debated Thursday with polemicist Eric Zemmour, had established "a link between yesterday evening and today".

"When Mr. Zemmour says that + the young migrants are all rapists + (...), well he sows a seed which ends up germinating, with young people who believe him and who go to the end of this delirium", a he declared to the press.

"I would like him to realize", he said, referring to Logan Nisin: "It is about me that one speaks, of a living person" and not "an abstraction".

"I am hot, I am cold, I have a family, I am like him".

"And as a man, I forgive him," he added.

The six defendants, aged 23 to 33, face up to ten years imprisonment for "terrorist criminal association".

They are accused of having planned attacks to "fight against immigration and Islamism" in the words of their alleged leader.

Four years later, all assure "regret" that they would "never have taken action".

This is the second time that Mr. Mélenchon wishes to become a civil party.

First accepted, his request was rejected on appeal.

The court will decide at the end of the trial.

© 2021 AFP