Antisemitism becomes a political football in France's election campaign

France's parliamentary elections are pitting the far-right National Rally, which counts a convicted Holocaust denier and a former Nazi paramilitary among its founding members, against left-wing parties – themselves accused of antisemitism after an equivocal response to the war between Hamas and Israel. With all sides quick to condemn the others, anti-discrimination activists fear parties are more interested in using the problem as a political football than tackling it.

Every faction has something to say to France's Jewish voters in this month's snap election campaign, but that doesn't necessarily make it any clearer to know who to back.

"We're all a bit lost, because we've lost faith. I usually vote a certain way, but this time I'm really lost," one shopkeeper in Sarcelles, a suburb north of Paris with a large Jewish population, told RFI this week.

Her colleague said she was leaning towards the status quo – President Emmanuel Macron's ruling centrists. 

"Even if it's not great, at least it's not a catastrophe."

For many French Jews, catastrophe could come from either side of the political spectrum. The far right is historically no friend of religious minorities in France, yet the hard left – namely the France Unbowed party led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon – is tainted by a string of questionable remarks, as well as strident criticism of Israel that some fear is underpinned by antisemitism.

One of the country's most prominent Jewish advocacy groups, the Council of Jewish Institutions in France (Crif), sums up the dilemma in its official election position: "Neither the National Rally nor France Unbowed." 

Accusations fly

Yet those are the options voters may find themselves left with in the deciding round of France's elections on 7 July, which will pit the two parties with the most votes from this Sunday's opening round head to head.

The National Rally is leading the latest polls, followed by France Unbowed and its smaller allies in the New Popular Front, a left-wing coalition formed to take on the far right.

Macron's centrist Together alliance is trailing in third, despite the president's efforts to portray it as the safest alternative to radical extremes. 

At a time when antisemitic acts have soared alongside the Israel-Hamas war, from racist graffiti to attacks on synagogues and the gang rape of a Jewish child, Macron allies have accused their opponents of stoking divisive identity politics.

The leaders of the New Popular Front claim Macron's camp is leading a smear campaign against them.

In a statement published last weekend, the four member parties – France Unbowed, the Socialists, the Communists and the Greens – said accusations of antisemitism were aimed at discrediting them and reaffirmed their commitment to stamp out all forms of discrimination.

Calling the alliance inherently prejudiced is unfounded, agrees historian Robert Hirsch, a specialist on the French left's relationship with Jews and member of antisemitism activist group Raar. 

"France Unbowed is not an antisemitic party with a programme targeting Jews, a culture of antisemitism, a history bound up with antisemitism," he told RFI. 

Saying otherwise serves to obscure the antisemitic roots of another French party, Hirsch said: the National Rally.

Far right's U-turn

Originally named the National Front, it was founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen and other extreme nationalists – among them a former commander in the Waffen-SS.

Le Pen called the Nazi gas chambers "a detail" of history – just one of several statements that earned him convictions for denial and hate speech – and for decades portrayed Jews, like Muslims, as an outside threat to traditional French values.

Marine Le Pen, who took over the party from her father in 2011 and expelled him four years later, has sought to rehabilitate the movement since then.

She proclaims zero tolerance for antisemitism within her rebranded party, and insists it is the strongest defence French Jews have against what she calls the real enemy – fundamental Islam.

As France found itself targeted by radical Islamist terrorists, some of them singling out Jewish victims, the message resonated – and a small but noticeable number of Jewish voters backed Le Pen in presidential elections.

Legacy of 7 October

Then came the Hamas attacks on Israel of 7 October, which according to historian Hirsch "dramatically accelerated a number of things". 

The National Rally saw an opportunity to burnish its credentials. The party's leaders compared the attacks to pogroms, backed the Israeli military response and joined a national solidarity march against antisemitism.

Meanwhile, the left appeared to many Jews to be equivocating. 

France Unbowed's leadership shied away from calling the Hamas assault a terrorist attack and criticised the Israeli military response in a way that seemed to imply Israel was to blame. Nor did Mélenchon join the solidarity march, instead criticising Jewish organisers for allowing Le Pen to attend.

Above all, says Hirsch, the party did not appear to empathise with the horror Jews were feeling. Aside from an attack on the Israeli state, 7 October was also the biggest attack on Jewish people since World War II, "and France Unbowed absolutely didn't want to recognise that". 

Left's repeated mistakes

It comes on top of earlier "missteps" by Mélenchon and his cadres that have left antisemitism watchdogs like Raar concerned, Hirsch says.

He points to comments going back several years, such as Mélenchon's claims that Jews crucified Jesus, or that the xenophobia of far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour – who is of Jewish descent – fits into a certain type of Judaism that opposes integration.

But he notes that other members of France Unbowed – typically outside Mélenchon's inner circle – have made it clear they don't share his stance.

That's not enough to reassure some prominent French Jewish figures – notably Serge Klarsfeld, a Holocaust survivor and respected historian who has helped expose France's contribution to the genocide. 

Speaking to news channel LCI two weeks ago, he said that in a head-to-head between the National Rally and France Unbowed, he'd take the former. 

"When there is an anti-Jewish party and a pro-Jewish party, I will vote for the pro-Jewish party."

Political point-scoring

Others aren't convinced a party that until recently campaigned on banning kosher meals from school canteens and stopping Jewish men wearing the kippa in public is truly "pro-Jewish".

Moïse Kahloun, a Jewish community leader in Sarcelles, said he could understand why some have been drawn to the National Rally since 7 October, but deplored the idea of backing Jews as a way to score political points.

"It's just a way to sweet-talk the electorate," he warned.

At its most cynical, the party's strategy may not even be aimed at winning over French Jews – who, at roughly 500,000, make up less than 1 percent of the country's voters.

Some Jewish leaders have criticised it as a ploy to give the National Rally moral cover for its hard-line positions against Islam, part of Le Pen's project to make the party respectable in the eyes of the broader mainstream. 

Empty promises?

Outside the election campaign, people involved in the fight against antisemitism doubt that any political camp has the will to take meaningful action.

"Antisemitism exists on the left, especially the far-left and in the circle of France Unbowed and the Ecologists," France's human rights watchdog the CNCDH wrote in its annual survey of racist, antisemitic and xenophobic views, published on Thursday.

But it is "nothing compared with what is observed on the far right and those close to the National Rally".

Nor did the report spare Macron's government, which it said had been too slow to act when antisemitic acts rocketed after the 7 October attacks.

Several activists told RFI that politicians have failed to make education against antisemitism a priority.

"It takes a lot of time and investment," said Hélène Bouniol, who co-directs the education programme run by anti-discrimination network Licra. "It has to be part of the school curriculum."

She denounced "a lack of courage" among those vying to lead France: "At the political level, no one wants to tackle the problem head on."

This story features interviews by RFI's Marie Casadebaig, Anne Cantener and Aurore Lartigue.