If words still have meaning, what's happening on the French political left is particularly serious. Since Hamas's surprise attack on Israel on Saturday, October 7, La France Insoumise (LFI) party leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon and those close to him have refused to describe as "terrorist" the action of an Islamist group that has attacked civilians, massacred families, taken children hostage and unleashed a murderous war.
Speaking to the press on October 10, the head of LFI MPs, Mathilde Panot, asserted that her party would not change its position "one iota." This position, as Mélenchon has declared, consists of drawing a parallel between "the armed offensive by Palestinian forces led by Hamas" and the "context of Israel's intensifying policy of occupation in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem."
Like much of the French left, LFI has always defended the oppressed Palestinian people. The radicalization of the Israeli right in recent years, against a backdrop of Western indifference, has revolted it. This is understandable, but the fact that, in the name of this indignation, it is unable to correctly describe the atrocities committed in the course of a terrorist operation, fomented by an extremist organization, tips it into something else: a form of complacency toward the most barbaric acts of violence.
Mélenchon did nothing to help his case when, on Monday evening, he attacked the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF), which called for demonstrations in support of Israel. He accused the council of "preventing French solidarity with the desire for peace" after having classified its president, Yonathan Arfi, in the "extreme right" camp this summer.
What is Mélenchon trying to achieve? To strengthen his electoral base in working-class neighborhoods? To pit one community against another? To encourage anti-Semitism? To endorse Islamist terrorism? All these questions deserve to be asked openly, not only within his own party but also within the other members of the Nouvelle Union Populaire Ecologique et Sociale (NUPES, a coalition of left-wing parties) since Mélenchon has become a problem for the entire left.
Voices within LFI stood out: MPs François Ruffin and Alexis Corbière unambiguously condemned Hamas's terrorist act on Saturday. The Parti Socialiste was also outraged: Jérôme Guedj, an MP and former close associate of Mélenchon's, expressed his "disgust." The Socialist mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, solemnly demanded that her party leave NUPES and renounce "this misalliance that's leading everyone to a dead end."
Indeed, relations within the alliance are becoming increasingly strained, but the moment for a full explanation has not yet arrived. The first secretary of the Parti Socialiste is resisting, the leader of the Greens is keeping quiet and the head of the Parti Communiste, who has been very critical of Mélenchon as of late, is also staying silent. What are they all afraid of? Undermining the renewed unity of the left? Of being caught out for their radicalism, or of exposing the weaknesses of their political platform?
Each time Mélenchon has offended them with his authoritarian behavior, his excesses, his sectarianism or his attraction to forceful regimes, they have protested but ultimately bowed their heads, without seeing that each time it was a little of their value they were sacrificing and their worth that they were losing. It's high time to break free from this tutelage.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.