France’s lower house backs promotion of Alfred Dreyfus; bill awaits Senate approval

The French parliament backs a bill that will promote Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish French army captain wrongly convicted of treason in 1894, to the rank of brigadier general, an act of reparation for one of the most notorious acts of antisemitism in the country’s history.

The lower-house National Assembly unanimously approves the legislation, which is seen as a symbolic step in the fight against antisemitism in modern France.

The draft law was put forward by former prime minister Gabriel Attal, who leads French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Renaissance party.

For the promotion to take effect, it still has to be approved by the upper house Senate, at a date that has yet to be fixed.

All 197 deputies present voted in favour in the lower house.

The rapporteur of the proposed law, Renaissance lawmaker Charles Sitzenstuhl, says the vote “will go down in history” and calls on senators “to quickly adopt the text.”

The symbolic promotion of Dreyfus, whose condemnation came amid rampant antisemitism in the French army and wider society in the late 19th century, comes at a time of growing alarm over hate crimes targeting Jews in the country.