Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s comments sparked widespread criticism on Sunday October 22. The leader of La France insoumise (LFI) accused Yaël Braun-Pivet, president of the National Assembly, of “encouraging the massacre” by going to Israel.
The holder of the perch visited Israel on Saturday and Sunday where she stressed that France “fully supported Israel” and that “nothing [should] prevent” the country “from defending itself” in the war which opposes it to Palestinian Hamas.
While several thousand people gathered in support of the Palestinians in several cities in France, his trip in the company of the boss of the Les Républicains (LR) party, Eric Ciotti, and the deputy for French people abroad, Meyer Habib (related LR) , and Mathieu Lefèvre (Renaissance), president of the France-Israel friendship group, was strongly castigated on the left.
On the social network “Not in the name of the French people! », Protested the leader of LFI. Scathing terms which immediately caused controversy, with ministers Marc Fesneau and Oliver Dussopt evoking in unison “a tweet of shame”.
“Despicable accusations”
“Here is the subliminal message of Jean-Luc Mélenchon: to designate the Jews as the party of foreigners and of war,” said the president of CRIF, the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France, Yonathan Arfi, denouncing “ anti-Semitic rhetoric”, when Licra, the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism, pointed out “electoral anti-Semitism”.
Discomfort has also spread to the socialist ranks, with MP Valérie Rabault targeting “abject accusations (…)”. “Collaboration, eighty years later,” wrote the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Laurent Wauquiez (Les Républicains), on X.
Ms. Braun-Pivet’s trip had previously been criticized in harsher terms by the movement’s coordinator, Manuel Bompard, calling it a “major political mistake.” LFI intends to “demand accountability on this subject” on Monday in the National Assembly, during the debate on the situation in the Middle East between the government and political groups.
The leader of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure also criticized Ms. Braun-Pivet for having “spoken of unconditional support for Israel” and singled out the presence of Eric Ciotti and Meyer Habib, “hawks, on a line without nuance”, according to him.
According to her entourage, Yaël Braun-Pivet went to Israel from Saturday evening to Sunday for a “solidarity” trip with the country devastated by Hamas attacks, and to “encourage humanitarian convoys for civilian populations.” “What is important is that the civilian populations in Gaza are victims of this conflict as little as possible. But we also know that they often serve as a human shield,” declared the Yvelines elected official in Tel Aviv.
Yaël Braun-Pivet’s entourage had specified to Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the Socialist Party and the French Communist Party (PCF) had been invited to join this trip but had not followed up, this which both political parties confirm.
“We declined, because we asked that this delegation carry a message also denouncing the bombings in Gaza and that it salutes the Palestinian Authority as much as the Israeli authorities. It did not seem appropriate to us to participate in this delegation whose message was not balanced,” affirmed the leader of the PCF, Fabien Roussel, to Agence France-Presse.