IN THEIR thousands they marched through the cities of France led by mayors, politicians, two past presidents and the present one.

The mood was solemn and the slogan simple: Enough.

When the Right and their bully boys want to flex their muscles and show their ‘superiority' they pick on the easiest and weakest of targets and so it has been in France.

Anti-Semitism is on the move again in this country and the government has warned it is spreading like poison.

It would be wrong to say this is entirely a new phenomenon; another outward sign of the evil and hatred that has been unleashed in the world in the last few years.

In truth it has always festered under the surface of this deeply suspicious, often insular country.

It is almost a strange defiance lingering from the reluctant acceptance that 78,000 French Jews were deported to death camps, aided by the French collaborationist Vichy government during the Nazi occupation in the Second World War.

When the French are ashamed of their actions, they turn their faces away rather than deal with the reality and blame the victims, not the perpetrators.

France is home to the world’s largest Jewish population outside of Israel and the US. Last year, police recorded a 74 per cent increase in reported anti-Jewish offences. Many are not being reported.

Cemeteries have been desecrated and the still chilling swastika daubed on headstones; doors and synagogues.

Once again, the word "Juden" has been painted on Jewish businesses and homes.

Many men no longer wear the kippah (skull cap) in public, fearful that to do so will mark them out for attack.

And the ever-present warped belief that all Jews are part of a global Rothschild/Soros cabal has erupted with a vengeance.

Driving some, but by no means all of this scapegoating of the country’s Jews, are the thugs and inadequate who slime around the fringes of other movements.

Fidelma Cook: What next for France's yellow vest protests?

This time it’s the Gilets Jaunes – the yellow vests – whose initial simple protests against fuel charges has dissolved in a pot-pourri of left/right/anarchist anger.

Last Saturday some of them surrounded the elderly philosopher Alain Finkielkraut as he left his Paris apartment calling him "a dirty Zionist" and shouting "France belongs to us."

On Tuesday before the marches, President Macron, wearing a kippah, was visibly shocked on seeing the vandalised Jewish cemetery in Quatzenheim, a small town in north-eastern Alsace near the German border.

Ninety-six tombstones had been spray painted with blue and yellow swastikas.

Macron told the community: "When one of us attacked, we are all attacked," and vowed that anti-Semitism would be eradicated.

But other politicians have admitted that anti-Semitism is deeply rooted in French society.

Édouard Philippe, the prime minister, said: "We would like to think otherwise, but it is a fact. We must be totally determined, I would say almost engaged, in our will to fight, with a clear awareness that this fight is an old one and will last a long time."

There have been, of course, no such unequivocal words across the channel where charges of anti-Semitism have splintered the Labour Party and begun the possible demolition of its current structure.

Jeremy Corbyn barely acknowledged the seven who initially walked away. Certainly, had no words for Luciana Berger persistently abused over 10 years within the party.

Targeted online she needed a police escort at last year’s Labour Party conference after receiving death threats. Last week she said she was "deeply disturbed" by Corbyn’s lack of response.

There have been claims that racism and anti-Semitism is endemic in the party and until Corbyn speaks out and acts firmly, they will continue and more will leave.

But here in France, this week’s marches in 15 cities at least shows a commitment to wiping out this evil.

Over the years discussing anti-Semitism with French friends I have been shocked at the easy acceptance of such feelings. Often shocked when, without any awareness when talking of someone, they will add: "Well, he’s a Jew, what do you expect?"

And, yes, it almost always refers to money and the husbanding of money. There is no thought behind their words; just the repetition of tired, untrue medieval cliches.

When brought up short on what they’re saying, they blink in surprise, astonished that I could be taking offence. Then, rather than explain their prejudices, they shrug and look away.

But in the next breath they’ll say: "He’s a Muslim, never liked them. Or, he’s a Parisian – all rude graspers. Or that family? Thieves all of them but then they come from X village. What do you expect?"

I have come to accept that in rural France everybody hates somebody.

Meanwhile Macron has made it clear that racism and anti-Semitism will not be tolerated in the Republic. Whether that will be translated into new laws is uncertain. He believes in education – stopping the spread of bile at source.

Decent people, good people witnessing this new/old hatred are looking on shell shocked and asking: Why?

So, they march and vow: Never again.

This time we must mean it or we truly are damned.

Fidelma Cook: What next for France's yellow vest protests?