To save French society, Jean-Luc Melenchon must be stopped - opinion

There is no other way to describe the outcome of the recent parliamentary elections in France, where the far-left bloc, dominated by an antisemite named Jean-Luc Melenchon, secured the largest number of seats in the National Assembly.

Indeed, the bitter irony is that French voters rejected Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front, which has discarded its antisemitic past, and instead chose the far-left New Popular Front (NPF), which has demonstrably failed to do the same.

This speaks volumes about the state of French society, and perhaps much of the Western world, where the hatred and slander of Jews is not automatically considered a disqualifying characteristic for anyone seeking higher office.

While many people outside France are not too familiar with Melenchon, whose France Unbowed movement allied with Socialists and Communists to form the NPF, it is worth taking note of his track record of offensive and obscene statements about Jews.

In a speech in 2017, this so-called “enlightened thinker” described French Jews as “an arrogant minority that lectures to the rest.” In 2020, he dismissed chants of “dirty Jews” that were made at an anti-racism demonstration in Paris as “gossip,” despite video evidence proving that they had occurred. When French police said they had referred the matter for investigation, Melenchon took to social media to denounce the police for “peddling gossip” rather than condemning the protesters.

Extreme antisemitism

And after Oct. 7, Melenchon hit a new low when his party issued a statement referring to the Hamas massacre as an “armed offensive by Palestinian forces” that took place “in the context of the intensification by Israel of the policy of occupation of Gaza, the West Bank, and east Jerusalem.”

He refused to denounce the slaughter and would not condemn remarks made by one of his deputies, Daniele Obono, who insisted that Hamas was a “resistance movement.”

In a blog post on June 2, he shrugged off surging antisemitism in France, calling it “residual,” and even claimed that hatred of Jews was “absent” from pro-Palestinian rallies. There have been many other such examples over the years, none of which seem to have prevented this hateful cretin from rising to political power.

It is no wonder, then, that leading French Jews from across the spectrum have expressed fears about Melenchon’s electoral popularity, which philosopher Bernard Henri-Levy described on X as “a chilling moment. A stain.”

Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France, did not mince words in describing Melenchon, telling The Jerusalem Post earlier this week that he “is a person who is a threat against the Jews.”

Arfi accused Melenchon of fueling anti-Israel sentiment in France and said that he had put a “target on the back of all Jews who support Israel.” And Rabbi Moshe Sebbag of the Grand Synagogue in Paris said that “it seems France has no future for Jews,” urging young French Jews to move to Israel.

Shortly after the exit poll results were announced on July 7, Melenchon wasted little time before signaling that he intended to pursue an aggressive anti-Israel policy. In one of his first policy pronouncements, he declared that he would seek French recognition of a nonexistent Palestinian state.

As of this writing, it remains unclear what type of governing coalition will be formed in France, as many observers suggest that there could be a hung parliament. But Melenchon has made clear that if his party helps form a government, he expects the next French prime minister to come from the ranks of his comrades. 

In the 1940s, Vichy France under marshall Phillipe Petain collaborated with the Nazis and enthusiastically participated in the roundup and deportation of Jews, including my late grandmother’s first cousin and his wife, who were sent to Auschwitz.

Now, barely 80 years later, Melenchon is looking to forge French collaboration with the likes of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority by rewarding them with recognition of a state for their murder of Jews.

With his brazen hostility toward Israel and Jews, Melenchon is, in effect, embarking on a perilous path toward undermining the democratic values that underpin French society, laying the groundwork for a possible Vichy France 2.0.

For the sake of French Jewry and French society as a whole, he cannot be allowed to succeed. 

The writer served as deputy communications director under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.