2023-10-11 12:00:04
Members of the government and deputies take a minute of silence in tribute to the victims of the current conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, before the session of questions to the government, at the National Assembly, in Paris, France, on 10 October 2023. GONZALO FUENTES / REUTERS
The Hemicycle standing and loud applause, as a sign of support for the people of Israel, after the unprecedented attack carried out on Saturday by Hamas. Tuesday, in the Assembly, the deputies of La France insoumise (LFI) were the last to stand up. They ostensibly remained with their arms hanging or crossed. In an instant, everything was said, while the crisis shaking the Middle East irrigates the French political debate, throwing harsh light on the ulterior motives of each camp.
By putting Israel and Palestinian Hamas back to back, while refusing to characterize the latter as “terrorist”, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the “rebellious” have been causing indignation since Saturday. This strategy – already at work at the time of urban riots or on the subject of police violence – aims to attract an electoral clientele, while Mr. Mélenchon achieved, in 2022, significant scores in neighborhoods where the Palestinian cause is embraced by young people from North African immigration. But it threatens an already moribund New Ecological and Social People’s Union (Nupes). Some members of the left alliance are now openly asking the question of remaining there, while the first secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, has continued, since Saturday, to distinguish himself from his LFI ally.
“Rebellious” radicalism has another, mirrored consequence: it completes the attempt at normalization by the National Rally (RN) which, for its part, condemned terrorist acts with the greatest firmness and sent a delegation on Monday to the Trocadéro. , at the demonstration of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France. Tuesday, in the Assembly, Marine Le Pen reaffirmed “solemnly” its support for the people of Israel, victims of « pogroms »while criticizing those who “excuse” or “relativize”. She also called for “protect the French Jews”.
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This operation was carefully prepared, every word carefully considered. Condemning with the greatest firmness the Hamas attack, while pointing out the ambiguities of LFI, allows the leader of the RN to turn the page on the anti-Semitic or negationist outbursts of which Jean-Marie Le Pen was customary, thus continuing the liquidation of the paternal inheritance. “She makes exactly the same remarks as the government parties, with an added security and anti-Muslim touch”notes François Hollande’s former advisor, Gaspard Gantzer.
Left redial
Consequence: the pariah cloak which has long enveloped the shoulders of the leaders of the RN is now found on those of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the “new scarecrow of French politics”, according to the secretary general of the Jean Jaurès Foundation, Gilles Finchelstein. The strategists of the far-right party, who know that there cannot be two “devils” at the same time, want to see this as a turning point. At the RN, we also cite the recent work of IFOP pollster Jérôme Fourquet, in which the latter describes a shift to the right, or even to the extreme right, of a Jewish electorate which, historically, voted on the left.
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