Call for University President to resign amid academic freedom row at Lyon 2

EXCLUSIVE MAINTENANCE - Three weeks after the interruption in Lyon II of a course of the geographer specialist of the Middle East Fabrice Balanche by pro-Palestinian activists, the controversy remains lively. Minister of Higher Education Philippe Baptiste reacts in Le Figaro.

Call for University President to resign amid academic freedom row at Lyon 2

A group of prominent academics have called for the resignation of the president of Université Lyon 2 (‘Lyon 2’) after she appeared to side with masked and hooded student activists who stormed a lecture by Middle East expert Fabrice Balanche, accusing him of “genocidal rhetoric”. The mob targeted Balanche for criticising what he described as the rise of Islamist influence on campus and for denouncing the tactics of pro-Palestinian student groups.…

The president of Lyon-2 University had denounced the professor's words "fearing" and "conspiracy" taken by pro-Palestinian activists.

Isabelle von Bueltzingsloewen denounced the "fearing words" of the lecturer Fabrice Balanche, who had flouted "Islamo-leftism" in force in Lyon-II after one of his courses had been interrupted.

The university has been at the heart of heated debates since the invasion of a group of people on 1 April during a course by Fabrice Balanche, a recognized specialist in Iraq and Syria. He has been strongly sidelined by militants calling him "racist" and "Zionist".

Fifteen days after the interruption of a course by activists, the President of Lyon 2 denounced "unbearable facts" but, at the same time, regretted the "fearing, plotting and harmful words" of the professor concerned.