The death of the founder of the National Front triggered incessant comparisons with the leader of the rebels, accused of being the heir of Jean-Marie Le Pen in terms of anti-Semitism. Despite Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s ideological drift, the attack is fundamentally inept.
From the pen of Sophia Aram, the Plantu label or in the mouths of CNews commentators, the death of Jean-Marie Le Pen, this Tuesday, January 7, gave rise to a curious assertion: Jean-Luc Mélenchon would be his heir. Everyone is working to transmit to the founder of La France insoumise (LFI) the mistigri of the status of devil of the Republic, seeking to make the former socialist the new official of the Republic. Marianne criticized, more than in turn, the clientelist impasse in which La France insoumise has engaged by making “working class neighborhoods” its main electoral target, as well as the ambiguities of Jean-Luc Mélenchon on anti-Semitism. However, placing “JLM” in the lineage of Le Pen senior is, let us say it bluntly, a complete absurdity.
On Anti-Semitism remains residual in France “, an observation obviously contradicted by the explosion in the number of anti-Semitic acts since October 7) and the revisionist outing of Jean-Marie Le Pen on the gas chambers, ” detail of the history of the Second World War ».
Far from being isolated, this parallel is taken up in unison by the presenters, columnists and journalists of CNews. “ When I see the statements of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, I say that the possible anti-Semitism – in any case he was not a philosemite – of Mr. Jean-Marie Le Pen does not come close to living anti-Semitism, dangerous, purulent, from Mr. Mélenchondeclares lawyer Gilles-William Goldnadel. In a certain way, Mr. Le Pen’s anti-Semitism was already that of yesterday, over, while that of Mr. Mélenchon is that of today. »
The Bolloré group in a loop on… Mélenchon
On the same channel, Sonia Mabrouk adds: “ It will shock a lot on the left, but the fact of saying that the heirs of Jean-Marie Le Pen would rather be on the extreme left than on the extreme right is a realityasserts the star journalist of the Bolloré group. Who doesn’t clearly say that he is Charlie today? Who cannot clearly state the fight against anti-Semitism? (…) It comes from the same method, Jean-Marie Le Pen has always believed in the cultural battle that must be won, it is the Gramscian vision. It’s like Jean-Luc Mélenchon today. »
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One last one for the road? Yoann Usaï, political journalist from CNews: “ The extreme right means being factious, being anti-Semitic and showing anti-parliamentarianism. These are ultimately the characteristics that we find on the far left. It is obvious that today, these characteristics are no longer on the side of the National Rally. There is no anti-parliamentarism, there is no anti-Semitism, there is no faction either. The factious are on the extreme left. »
-Absurdity, we wrote, for at least three reasons: first and foremost, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, certainly a subscriber to controversy, has never made openly anti-Semitic, revisionist or racist remarks. Mélenchon has his ambiguities, Le Pen his legal convictions. Jean-Luc Mélenchon is not a declared opponent of the Republic, Jean-Marie Le Pen was, since his remarks were in flagrant contradiction with the principle of equality, without distinction of origin, race or religion.
« I believe in racial inequality, it’s obvious », declared Jean-Marie Le Pen in 1996. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a self-proclaimed anti-racist (a point on which there is also room for debate, of course), has never made the slightest equivalent statement. With all due respect to our colleagues at CNews, we do not find a trace in Jean-Luc Mélenchon of an essentialist vision based on an alleged hierarchy between so-called races, a vision on the contrary favored by the extreme right, including Jean-Marie Le Pen is a genuine representative.
Two tribunes… and that’s it
This is the second absurdity of this artificial connection: it focuses on the anti-Semitism attributed to Jean-Luc Mélenchon and proven by Jean-Marie Le Pen (we will spare the reader the litany of its rubbish). What do they have in common, apart from this supposed trait? A tribunitian talent? This is very poor for establishing a connection. Jean-Marie Le Pen was violently anti-communist, head-on opposed to immigration, a supporter of order for order’s sake, oscillating from Poujadism to uninhibited liberalism on the economic level. Jean-Luc Mélenchon assumes his Marxist matrix, pleads in favor of a new creolized France, affirms that “ the police tue » and ranks among the declared opponents of neoliberal globalization.
READ ALSO: Death of Jean-Marie Le Pen: a life to the extreme
Finally, it is clear that the true heirs of Jean-Marie Le Pen and his National Front are indeed the National Rally and Reconquest!. Despite Marine Le Pen’s demonization enterprise, the fiasco of the inaugurations in the 2024 legislative elections demonstrated that the RN had not finished with this ” past that does not pass ».
Marianne then pointed out the cases of Jérôme Carbriand (Essonne) praising the “ genius for courage ” of the ” descendants of the Aryans », by Laurent Gnaedig (Haut-Rhin) confessing his “ doubts » concerning the gas chambers, or Grégory Renard (deputy for Katel Le Cuillier, in Morbihan), using the insult “ bogmoules » (inspired by the insulting “bougnoule”) on social networks. Curiously forgotten mentions of the ideological testament established on CNews.
