In France, the CNCDH, the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights, which evaluates public policy, has submitted its 2023 report on the fight against racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia. All the lights are red.
3 mins
The tolerance of the French declines to return to the level of 2017, we read in the CNCDH report. All minorities are affected. Racist crimes and offenses have increased by 32% compared to 2022, but it is the Jewish tolerance index that has declined the most and which accompanies an explosion of anti-Semitic acts, multiplied by 4 in one year, after the Hamas attack of October 7. Unprecedented in France.
Like every year, the CNCDH barometer allows us to know, in particular, the reasons for French opinion on Jews. Five stereotypes were submitted to a representative panel of French people. 41% of them adhere to at least 2 prejudices about Jews, instead of 37% in 2022.
“ The feeling that Jews have too much power, that they have a special relationship with money… That has hardly changed. », Explains Nonna Mayer, researcher at CNRS and one of the authors of the CNCDH report. “ But every time something happens in Israel and there is the feeling that French Jews are taking up the cause for Israel, these old stereotypes come up. “They are not 100% French”, “they are not loyal” “.
Also listen Anti-Semitism in France: a scourge on the rise
“Old anti-Semitism” and “new anti-Semitism”
For Nonna Mayer this rhetoric belongs to what is called the ” old anti-semitism ” which is found among the oldest, the least educated, and on the far right of the political spectrum. Unfortunately, it is now added to a “ new anti-Semitism “.
” There is the idea that what structures the perception of Jews is what is happening in the Middle East, it is the criticism of Israel. And suddenly, in the name of human rights, in the name of the defense of the Palestinians, this new anti-Semitism would have passed from the extreme right to the extreme left of the political field. »
With a different profile, younger people, more qualified and therefore much more left-wing. However, anti-Semitism is evident among 54% of Rassemblement National supporters, compared to 36% for La France Insoumise.
Read also Anti-Semitism in France: an electoral campaign that harms understanding of the phenomenon
Trivialization of the expression of hatred
The CNCDH, which collaborates with experts, but also associations and unions, is already observing the consequences of the political debate and the rise in power of the National Rally.
” There is truly a trivialization of the expression of hatred, as if there had already been an ideological victory of the extreme right. », Points out magistrate Magali Lafourcade, secretary general of the CNCDH. “ And even if today the National Rally tries to show a very demonized face, the voters are not mistaken. The supporters are not mistaken. They know that behind it, there is a whole rhetoric which has also crossed the borders of the extreme right to be able to be used by other parties and therefore the whole rest of society pays the price. »
Magali Lafourcade adds: “ Today, we have reports that in certain suburbs, there are terms that have not been heard for a long time or not as often that are reappearing. Homophobic attacks, attacks also against emancipated women, the whole panoply of prejudices which are always very coherent and which feed off each other which appear. And so we see that the fragmentation of society is already underway », she concludes.