It is a little before 9 p.m., and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, at the podium of his campaign HQ, outlines the issues of next July 7. Details this duality, consequence of the result of this first round of early legislative elections. “The country must choose: will it aggravate the worst of its divisions? […] Or will he come together to form a single people?” he asks. Rima Hassan, who has recently joined the Insoumis, stands to his left, her famous scarf brandished in homage to the Palestinian people, placed on her shoulders. On June 9, the evening of the European elections, she was not present at Mélenchon’s side. This Sunday, she is not concerned by the legislative elections, she has no responsibility within LFI, but she is there.
The MEP, a leading figure in the pro-Palestinian fight during the last European elections, has become a loyalist, a darling. It doesn’t matter if the figure embodied the strategy of the permanent coup, exacerbated divisions, and fueled suspicions of anti-Semitism of which La France Insoumise is accused. “The truth rises with a wingbeat to the symbol,” wrote Émile Zola. In other words, rallying is not an option, and Jean-Luc Mélenchon intends to show it. And to provoke until the end, even though the National Rally is on the verge of power.
The keffiyeh of discord. There is this political class that, unsurprisingly, seized on the sequence. Like François Bayrou, the head of the MoDem, or François-Xavier Bellamy, leader of the LR MEPs who, both, expressed their indignation at this fabric worn by the person concerned. There are these scandalized reactions that flourish on social networks, where thousands of Internet users are tearing each other apart about the presence of this black and white scarf, exhibited at such a decisive political moment. There is, without a doubt, the racism of some. Those who see in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the beginnings of a civilizational war in France, and perceive in the figure of Rima Hassan – born stateless and of Arab origin to boot! – a communication arm of Hamas.
And then there are the legitimate questions of a sincere part of the left-wing people and many French people. Shocked, often, by some of the positions adopted by La France Insoumise on the war in the Middle East, as well as by the radical statements of Rima Hassan. This, in the light of a second round full of uncertainties, where dozens of Insoumis will have no other choice but to win against the RN, thus preventing the far right from swelling its ranks. On the left, some supporters of the New Popular Front are doubling their severity towards the Insoumis. “Mélenchon has done everything from the beginning to ensure that the left-wing alliance does not win. This was the last episode,” whispers a bigwig from the ecologist party, yet very pro-Palestinian. It’s only a keffiyeh, of course. But it’s not just a keffiyeh.