It is traditional to tell those who are absent that they are always wrong. But this Sunday, November 12, it is they who brag and point the finger at the participants in the march against anti-Semitism, organized at the initiative of the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet and her Senate counterpart, Gérard Larcher.
“The entire right and the extreme right, although united, have failed to reproduce the general mobilizations of the past,” exclaims Jean-Luc Mélenchon from his X account (formerly Twitter). Without any surprise, one of his most loyal, who succeeded him both in his constituency of Bouches-du-Rhône and at the head of La France insoumise (LFI), Manuel Bompard, takes action: he denounces there a ” “politician appeal” which “ultimately only served to whitewash the extreme right and unleash expressions of hatred against Muslims.”
The bad excuse
It must be said that to justify their refusal to accept the appeal of the two Presidents of the Chambers, LFI is working hard to denounce the participation of the National Rally (RN) and Reconquête (Eric Zemmour’s party). Apologies which are not worth a penny for MEP Raphaël Glucksmann, who assumes, he told L’Express, “not to choose the demonstrations to which (he goes) based on what Marine Le Pen decides”.
Raphaël Glucksmann, MEP and co-president of Place Publique
Same story from the national secretary of Ecologists Marine Tondelier, who also declared “to leave no ambiguity on the fact that the presence of the RN in this procession” poses a problem. And to rejoice in walking “with Nupes” to “fight intolerance and denounce anti-Semitism”.
More isolated than ever on this day of “national unity”, La France Insoumise organized its own rally that same morning “against all anti-racist fights” near the location of the former Vel d’Hiv. Having lasted only about fifty minutes, the episode was expeditious, as much as the frosty reception. Signs “Don’t touch memory”, “Don’t touch Vel d’Hiv”, drowned in voices shouting “collaborators”, awaited the rebellious executives who, with interventions on the radio, television sets and tweets , are proud of this boycott decreed by the movement’s authorities.
Timid allies
A new step aside, all the more noticeable since their Nupes allies all responded. Banner in hand, Marine Tondelier (Les Ecologistes), Olivier Faure (Socialist Party) and Fabien Roussel (Communist Party) marched side by side this Sunday, far behind the leading procession crowned by Yaël Braun-Pivet, Gérard Larcher, Élisabeth Borne , Nicolas Sarkozy, and François Hollande. Themselves closely followed by a bench of prime ministers, ranging from Jean-Marc Ayrault to Jean Castex, via Manuel Valls, and even Édouard Philippe. Bernard Cazeneuve, who launched his “Convention” movement last March with a view to building an alternative to the left “of all excesses” – understand, La France Insoumise – was also there.
But while the boycott of the Insoumis arouses the indignation of a majority of the political class, the allies of Jean-Luc Mélenchon (and former allies, Olivier Faure having pronounced on October 18 a moratorium on the participation of the PS in the Nupes ) were relatively timid in their criticism. “Although it is obvious that some people indulge in a form of ambiguity, I would not go out of my way to say that the Insoumis are anti-Semitic,” PS general secretary Olivier Faure seems to be walking on eggshells. To L’Express, he explains that the positions of LFI are “none of his business”, to the extent that “the Nupes alliance simply no longer exists”.
The absence of Manuel Bompard and his troops? “It’s an obviously regrettable choice,” evades the national secretary of the Communist Party Fabien Roussel. And the former candidate of happy days smiles: “The world present at this march proves those absent wrong.” And for good reason, according to figures given by the prefecture on Sunday evening, 105,000 people marched in front of each other, side by side, from the Palais Bourbon to the Palais du Luxembourg. Among which, several individuals who are, to say the least, hostile to the presence of left-wing bosses.
A presence far from unanimous
“You are the mop of Hamas,” shouts a marcher towards the three Nupes leaders present. A direct reference to the, to say the least, ambiguous positions of several executives of the French left since the bloody Hamas attack on October 7. It must be said that if “Fabien Roussel has displayed a line completely different from that of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, certain members of the PCF continue, for example, to march alongside the Insoumis in pro-Palestinian rallies”, notes political scientist Jean-Yves Camus who attended from the bottom of his building the demonstration for the “ceasefire” in Gaza which was held on Saturday November 11 in Paris.
When they arrived on site, Fabien Roussel, Marine Tondelier and Olivier Faure were notably booed by several demonstrators. An “incomprehensible” reaction for Clément Mugnier, a young socialist from Chalon-sur-Saône (Saône-et-Loire). “This is a mobilization of national unity, where the entire republican left (PS-EELV-PCF, Editor’s note) is present. Those who insult us have the wrong target,” argues this former various elected official. LEFT. And for good reason, it is never pleasant to be sent back to back with those we refer to as “the heirs of Pétain”.