An editorial in Friday’s Le Figaro (France’s equivalent to the New York Times) is headlined “Mélenchon or the moral suicide of the left.”
The same statement could be applied to Britain’s Green party. Their open pandering to the Muslim vote in Thursday’s Gorton & Denton by-election was arguably a new low in British politics. It wasn’t just Israel and so-called Islamophobes who were targeted (in Urdu) in their campaign leaflets and videos, so was India.
Le Figaro’s scathing critique of the left-wing populist leader Jean-Luc Melenchon was written as a reaction to his visit to Lyon on Thursday evening. A fortnight earlier 23-year-old Quentin Deranque had been kicked to death in Lyon, allegedly by a far-left mob. Among the seven people charged in connection with the crime are two men employed as parliamentary assistants by Melenchon’s far-left La France Insoumise (LFI)
One might have expected Melenchon and LFI to have kept a low profile in the days after the death of the student.
Not a bit of it. They have shown scant sympathy for Deranque. On the contrary, Bruno Gaccio, an LFI candidate in next month’s local elections, this week described Deranque as “a big neo-Nazi arsehole.”
Deranque was a nationalist but not a neo-Nazi and the police have said he was not on their radar for extremism.
Melenchon’s visit to Lyon so soon after Deranque’s death was regarded by many as a provocation. He ignored the cries of indecency. The first round of the local elections are on March 15 and Melenchon enjoys the campaign trail.
At one point during his speech on Thursday evening Melenchon brought up the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. He mentioned the American sex offender’s name and then corrected himself. “Epstein affair… Ah, I meant to say ‘Epstine,’ sorry!”
There is no evidence of collusion between the Greens in Britain and Islamist groups but there is no doubt they have embraced the same strategy of Islamo-Gauchisme
The audience laughed along as Melenchon added: “So now you’ll say ‘Epstine’ instead of ‘Epstein’…now everyone knows what to do.”
The remarks were swiftly condemned as anti-Semitic; by Emmanuel Macron, by his government and by Yonathan Arfil, the head of France’s leading Jewish body. He said there were “real anti-Semitic overtones” in Melenchon’s words.
The editorial in Le Figaro agreed, commenting that Melenchon “was addressing less the audience than Muslim voters, who, he believes, will be grateful to him for stirring up this venom.”
Shamelessly chasing the Muslim vote has done Melenchon no harm. He’s gone from a fringe politician a decade ago to the most influential figure on the French left. He has achieved this by espousing what the French call Islamo-Gauchisme.
As Le Figaro said it has entailed the “moral collapse” of Melenchon. He was good friends with Charb, one of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists murdered by Islamists in 2015. Melenchon gave the eulogy at his funeral, damning religious fanaticism and vowing to defend the freedom of expression.
Earlier week Melenchon barred many journalists from attending a press conference because they had been critical of him and his party. During the conference he promised to close down right-wing media outlets if he becomes president next year.
As for religious fanaticism, a cross-party parliamentary enquiry last year concluded that there was evidence of “collusion” between LFI and Islamist groups.
There is no evidence of collusion between the Greens in Britain and Islamist groups but there is no doubt they have embraced the same strategy of Islamo-Gauchisme as LFI. Their successful candidate in the Gorton & Denton by-election, Hannah Spencer, sometimes sports a keffiyeh. The same garment is often draped round the shoulders of Rima Hassan, who was at the centre of LFI’s European election campaign.
She is the darling of progressive bourgeois students who, along with Muslims, constitute the core of LFI’s electorate. Hassan visited a university in Lyon two weeks ago to address students. A conservative feminist group objected to her presence and protested peacefully outside the venue behind a large banner that read: “Out with Islamo-Gauchistes.” Quentin Deranque had volunteered to provide some security to the young women, who were fearful of far-left thugs. Later in the day Deranque was ambushed and beaten to death.
In the week after the attack – which was captured on film and broadcast on television – a poll was conducted to see if it had damaged LFI. Not really. Sixty-one per cent of respondents said they would vote for anyone but LFI in the upcoming local elections – an increase of two points since a similar poll before Christmas. In other words nearly four in ten French are considering voting for Melenchon’s party.
They don’t care about the allegations of anti-Semitism or the links to violent extremist groups. Their preoccupations are Palestine, open borders and decolonising the West. They vote for the party that campaigns on these issues.
Keir Starmer has responded to the Green’s victory in Gorton and Denton by saying the party is no longer composed of “harmless environmentalists” but instead pursues “divisive, sectarian politics.”
The Greens won’t stop this pursuit. As with the LFI in France, the demographics will be on their side in the years ahead. They may be committing moral suicide but not electoral suicide.
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