The outcry of the assailant who slapped French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday raised questions about the meaning and connotations it carries, which may "explain" his action, at a time when many condemned what he had done.
While the phrase "Down with the Macaroni" indicates a rejection of the French president's policies, the phrase "Montjoa Saint Denis" remains ambiguous to many.
Before slapping Macron, the assailant grabbed the president's hand and shouted at him, "Monjoie Saint-Denis", which is actually a phrase of two words, the first "Mon Joa", which symbolizes the banner of a historical war, and "Saint-Denis" which is a synonym. To describe Saint Denis.
Many regions and churches in France bear the name of this saint, led by the municipality of "Saint Denis" in the capital, Paris.
And the slogan "Mon Joa Saint-Denis" is an expression used by some supporters of the French far-right, especially supporters of the royalists, according to the "Acte Saint-Denis" website.
French historians say that this cry symbolizes an ancient battle that took place between the eleventh and twelfth centuries, during the reign of the Captians.
The Capetians are a dynasty that includes all those attributed to Ugo Capet, the ancient king of France, according to the French RTL website.
The King of Spain, Juan Carlos, and the Grand Duke of Luxembourg are also members of this family, through the branch of the Bourbon dynasty, as Paul Quintel explains, in his Encyclopedia Universalis.
Paul Quintell explained that "it is difficult to determine the origin of the phrase, but it appears that it was already used in the Battle of the Bouvines during the reign of King Philip II."
For the Capetian kings, this cry made it possible to summon Saint Denis and benefit from his protection during battle.
This cry, as old as it may sound, has appeared several times in French political history.
Most recently, a Nanterre court convicted three students, members of Action Française, a small right-wing royalist group that advocates anti-Protestantism, anti-Masonry, xenophobia and anti-Semitism.
The three students were convicted in 2018, after altercations with a French parliamentarian named Eric Cockrell, and all three of them chanted the same slogan.
Commenting on what happened today, Cockerell tweeted, "Do you take the violence of the extreme right seriously now?"
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