Jean-Marie Le Pen, in a video broadcast on Thursday, February 21 on Youtube, responded to the many claims that acts of anti-Semitism across the country have increased in recent weeks, including the recent desecration of dozens of graves in the Jewish cemetery of Quatzenheim, as reported by French daily Le Figaro.
The former leader of the National Front dismissed the claims as frivolous. “If there was anti-Semitism in France, this kind of operation would have taken place in 300, 500 or 1 000 cemeteries,” Jean-Marie Le Pen explained.
“The fact that it took place in a single cemetery, and precisely, as luck would have it, the day before the demonstration, it is a good comms [strategic communications] operation,” he said mockingly. This desecration reminded him of another case in 1990, when the Socialist Minister of the Interior, Pierre Joxe, blamed the FN after the profanation of a Jewish cemetery in Carpentras by neo-Nazis.
“It is well known [that this case] was orchestrated by the government as a provocative operation against the FN, that it resulted in a real march where the President of the Republic was present, leading the marchers,” he said.
The patriarch of the Le Pens then addressed the alleged anti-Semitic insults that were launched against the academic Alain Finkielkraut, on Saturday, February 16, during Act XIV of the Yellow Vests.
Marine Le Pen had expressed her “indignation”, but her father says it was “a street incident, which should not have been presented as part of the national opinion on television”. He went even further, calling into question the alleged spike in anti-Jewish acts, which the Minister of the Interior estimated had increased by 74 percent in 2018 compared to 2019, and the scale of the mobilization against the Semitism.
Condemned in 1986 for “insidious anti-Semitism”, Jean-Marie Le Pen has persisted with his criticism: “There is no anti-Semitism in France that justifies a mobilization of opinion.”
He continued: “Radical Islamism, extrapolating in some way the Arab-Israeli conflict, and applying it to France. It’s a lot more anti-Zionism than anti-Semitism.”
He noted a “double standard” in condemning anti-religious acts: “Attacks on Christian religious buildings, even Muslim ones, are much less reported and taken into consideration [than anti-Jewish acts]. Actually, all attacks against religious places, whatever they are, must be condemned, of course.”
Le Parisien interviewed Frances Kalifat, president of the CRIF (Representative Council of Jewish Organisations of France), who said France was “clearly” experiencing a strong uptick in antisemitism.
Kalifat expressly blamed the Yellow Vests, saying the movement “has radicalised and been infiltrated by conspiratorial movements”. He added that the weekly protests gave the Yellow Vests “the opportunity to come and express their hatred of Jews, Israel, during these demonstrations on Saturday”.
According to Kalifat “drastic measures must be taken to bring these demonstrations to an end, which are no longer used to make claims about purchasing power but instead express hatred of institutions, the Republic and Jews”.
He concluded: “We can’t continue like this, Saturday after Saturday. […] We need new laws to take account of this new antisemitism that is advancing behind the mask of anti-Zionism.” Kalifat also called for control over social networks.
Three months from the deadline, at least two French parties are clamoring for the lead in the European elections that will take place on May 26 in France. President Macron’s LREM is slightly ahead in the polls, followed closely by the RN, as indicated by French weekly Le Point.
With 25 percent of voting intentions, LREM is ahead of the National Rally of Marine Le Pen, which is at 19 percent. Far behind, are the Republicans with only 10 percent of voting intentions, followed closely by Europe Ecology-The Greens at 9 percent.
For the rest, if the poll took place this Sunday, a list of Yellow Vests would collect 4 percent of votes.
The rest of the poll showed that 62 percent of French voters say they are concerned by these elections, against 35 percent who feel they are not interested at all. The survey also revealed that the interest is more marked among those who are 65 years and older (76 percent), executives (68 percent) and the inhabitants of the Paris agglomeration.
A slight majority of those under 35 (55 percent), 35-49 year olds (53 percent), employees and manual workers (53 percent) and inhabitants of rural communes (53 percent) expressed their interest in voting. This interest has risen by eight points since December 2018.
