accusations of anti-Semitism against LFI poisoned the left’s campaign

It is a slow poison, distilled drip by drop, which ended up, over the months, disrupting the left in the run-up to the legislative elections of June 30 and July 7. In this express campaign, the accusations of anti-Semitism against La France insoumise (LFI) undermine the New Popular Front (NFP). More than a century after the Dreyfus affair, which anchored the left in the fight against anti-Semitism, here are its executives on the defensive, forced to justify themselves. “Three of my great-grandparents died in the camps and my two grandparents are Holocaust survivors. Believe me, I would not support the New Popular Front if I had the slightest doubt that there was a form of anti-Semitism on that side”hammered home the communist senator of Paris Ian Brossat, on June 26, on CNews.

The new left-wing alliance has suffered from several problematic remarks by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of LFI, since the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, which have rekindled accusations of anti-Semitism against him.

On April 18, during a meeting in Lille during the European election campaign, the leader of LFI, for example, established a parallel between the president of the University of Lille and the Nazi Adolf Eichmann. A reference to the person responsible for the logistics of the final solution put in place by the Nazi regime likely to “trivializing the Holocaust”had castigated the Action Network against Anti-Semitism and All Racisms, a collective of left-wing citizens. On June 2, Mr. Mélenchon wrote on his blog that “anti-Semitism remains residual in France”de facto minimizing a scourge that has been exploding since October 7. New wave of criticism.

“Symptom of a major crisis”

Each time he was asked to explain himself, Mr. Mélenchon vigorously defended himself from making comments « anti-Jew »as its opponents denounce. “I have nothing to do with racism, I have nothing to do with anti-Semitism, that’s enough nowhe said again, on June 22, on France 5. All this is a pretext to say that La France Insoumise is an anti-Semitic organisation, in order to encourage the National Rally vote.

It is this burning context that has forced the left-wing parties, embarked on a new coalition, to examine their consciences and give assurances to disoriented voters. Head of the list of the Socialist Party (PS) and Place publique in the European elections of June 9, Raphaël Glucksmann, victim of violent anti-Semitic attacks during the campaign, made it one of the conditions of his support for the New Popular Front. “We talked about it because there was a problem of minimizing anti-Semitism”he justified to the Mondeon the sidelines of a trip to Marseille, on June 19. “In French history, when the “Jewish question” returns to the public debate, it is the symptom of a major crisis of the Republic”asserts Christian Picquet, member of the executive committee of the French Communist Party (PCF), at the heart of these discussions of the left-wing parties.

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