In tweets unearthed by the SwordsOfSalomon account, LFI candidate Reda Belkadi described Jews as “youpins” or indicated that “Hitler was pro-Israel”.
In a series of messages published this Thursday, June 27 on the social network ), denounced the investiture by the New Popular Front of a “anti-Jewish candidate”, “admirer of Alain Soral” in the first constituency of Loir-et-Cher.
SwordOfSalomon has unearthed several tweets supposedly posted by candidate Reda Belkadi. According to these screenshots, he wrote: “I called a Jewish friend a joke in front of a teacher, that ended badly too” (2018), “I want to laugh without thinking while sleeping, I’m going to watch best-ofs from Soral” (2019), “It was during this period that I joined Soral” (2020)“Hitler was pro-Israel” (2018). Born in 1998, he was between 20 and 22 years old at the time.
SwordOfSalomon underlines that Reda Belkadi had already been designated LFI candidate for Nupes during the legislative elections of June 2022. This 26-year-old computer engineer was also in 32nd position on the LFI list for the 2024 European elections.
While searching for these tweets, CheckNews was able to see that they are now nowhere to be found. Reda Belkadi seems to have deleted them. The tweet “Hitler was pro-Israel” still appears in Google’s cache and was cited in an article in Point published Wednesday June 26.
In a press release published this Thursday, the electoral committee of La France insoumise announced that it had learned of the existence of these “anti-Semitic tweets” the same day. Considering that the candidate “in fact violated the charter of commitment signed by all the candidates invested by La France insoumise”the committee withdrew his investiture in the first constituency of Loir-et-Cher and assures that it has contacted the Committee for Respect for Principles “to obtain his immediate exclusion from La France insoumise”.
After the publication of this article, Reda Belkadi forgot a press release, in which he admitted having published “dozens of absolutely unacceptable tweets (…) several years ago”. According to him, “they reflect a cruel lack, at that time, of training and education regarding several issues, in particular the fight against anti-Semitism. Today, thanks to years of activist training with movements and associations, I have evolved.” He considers that the withdrawal of his nomination is a “fair decision” and apologizes.
Updated June 27 at 4:20 p.m.: addition of the press release from Reda Belkadi.
