Jean-Luc Mélenchon believes that the march against anti-Semitism was a failure

2023-11-12 21:44:47

105,000 people in Paris alone, according to the police headquarters. But a failure for Jean-Luc Mélenchon. The leader of La France insoumise (LFI) said Sunday regarding the march against anti-Semitism that “the entire right and the extreme right, although united, have failed to reproduce the general mobilizations of the past”.

Several tens of thousands of people marched on Sunday between the National Assembly and the Senate to reject anti-Semitism while the number of hostile acts against Jews has exploded since October 7, the start of the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas. The Paris police headquarters says it has counted 105,000 participants in the capital. The Ministry of the Interior reports 182,000 demonstrators throughout France.

LFI had decided to boycott this march to mark its dissatisfaction with the participation of the National Rally (RN) and the other far-right party, Reconquest. “The rejection of anti-Semitism is broader in France. They stunted it and made it ambiguous. The French people will remain united despite their leaders,” added Jean-Luc Mélenchon on the X platform.

The entire right and the extreme right, although united, have failed to reproduce the general mobilizations of the past.
The rejection of anti-Semitism is broader in France. They stunted it and made it ambiguous. The French people will remain united despite their leaders.

— Jean-Luc Mélenchon (@JLMelenchon) November 12, 2023

The other left-wing parties Europe Écologie-les Verts, PS and PCF as well as associations for the defense of human rights have chosen to participate but to display themselves behind a common banner “against anti-Semitism and all the instigators of hatred and racism” in a “republican cordon” approach against the extreme right.

A rally against anti-Semitism organized by LFI near the location of the former Vel d’Hiv was disrupted on Sunday morning by demonstrators who criticize the party for its ambiguities. Carrying signs “Don’t touch the memory”, “Don’t touch the Vel d’Hiv”, several dozen demonstrators disrupted the gathering which aimed to lay wreaths of flowers at the square of the Jewish Martyrs of the Vélodrome d’Hiver, in the 15th arrondissement.