Mick Hartley

All eyes here were on Marine Le Pen and her National Rally prior to the French election, with the threat of the far-right coming to power. Mais non. This is France: they do things differently there. The left-wing New Popular Front has emerged as the largest party, led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon – a kind of French Jeremy Corbyn. 

Some details from the JC which you might not find at the BBC:

In a result almost no one anticipated, France has rejected the far-right in favour of the far-left alliance the New Popular Front (NPF), put together over the past week to fight Sunday’s second round of assembly elections.

Led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who has a long history of accusations of antisemitism and is said to be pro-Putin, the NPF’s surprise victory has understandably concerned French Jews.

Rabbi Moshe Sebbag, from the Grand Synagogue of Paris, went as far as to tell the Times of Israel that “it seems France has no future for Jews,” and advised young Jews to leave for Israel.

Mélenchon, who leads the far-left party La France Insoumise (LFI), has been accused of underplaying antisemitism, dog whistling, and playing into antisemitic stereotypes, over his long career in politics – all of which he denies.

A spokesperson from the European Jewish Congress (EJC) told the JC that LFI’s success “is a serious cause for concern due to Mélenchon’s repeated antisemitic statements and targeting of French Jewish organisations”. They continued: “The decision of other left-wing parties to align with the LFI in these elections represents an abandonment of French Jews at a time when they are increasingly threatened by the far-left in the public sphere”….

As antisemitic incidents surged post-October 7 – with four times as many reports of antisemitism in 2023 compared to the year before – Mélenchon continued to deny there was a problem. In a blog post published last month, he asserted that antisemitism was “absent” from anti-Israel rallies in France.

Since October 7, the far-left leader has repeatedly refused to condemn Hamas. LFI’s initial statement on the terror attacks called them an “armed offensive by Palestinian forces” that came “in the context of the intensification by Israel of the policy of occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem”. Mélenchon doubled down in response to a backlash, failing to condemn his deputy Daniele Obono, who called Hamas a “resistance movement”.

The left under Mélenchon has focused on the Palestinian cause. In his concluding speech in the first round of elections, the leader stood next to Rima Hassan, a prominent figure in LFI. A French-Palestinian lawyer, Hassan has called the October 7 attacks a “legitimate action”.

Not much of a choice for French Jews, then: a toxic far-right party with a history of antisemitism – notably from Marine Le Pen's father Jean-Marie, convicted multiple times of hate speech and Holocaust denial – and now a toxic far-left party, enthusiastically embracing the new antisemitism.