Jewish Group
Related: About this forumFrance's Jews Consider the Unthinkable: Voting for a Party With an Antisemitic Past - WSJ
PARISSerge Klarsfeld is a world-renowned Nazi hunter, a historian of the Holocaust and a moral authority in France who has pushed the country to reckon with its dark history of antisemitism.
That is why many in France were shocked this week when Klarsfeld defended the far-right party of Marine Le Pen, which counts among its founders a former Nazi paramilitary soldier. Klarsfeld, an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor, said that the main threat to Frances Jews now comes from the far left and that he wouldnt hesitate to vote for Le Pens party, the National Rally, in the coming parliamentary elections if the alternative were a coalition of leftist parties, the New Popular Front.
The National Rally supports Jews, supports the state of Israel, Klarsfeld said on national television. When there is an anti-Jewish party and a pro-Jewish party, I will vote for the pro-Jewish party. Klarsfelds comments are the fruit of a rapprochement between French Jews and the far right that is reordering French politics and helping push the National Rally to the doorstep of power. The National Rallys antisemitic past long made it radioactive to Jewish voters and much of the French electorate; the partys founder, Le Pens father, Jean-Marie, was convicted of antisemitism several times for calling the Nazi gas chambers a detail of World War II history.
Now the taboo is fading. The National Rallys outreach to French Jews, particularly in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack in Israel, has solidified the partys place in the mainstream of French politics, helping put it on track to win the most seats in the parliamentary elections, which conclude next month. French President Emmanuel Macron called for snap parliamentary elections after the National Rally trounced his centrist party in European elections this month. Polls show the National Rally leading in the first round of the French elections set for June 30, followed by the New Popular Front.
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Many French Jews, however, are wary of the National Rally. Despite the pro-Jewish and pro-Israel rhetoric of the partys leaders, Jews fear that antisemitic sentiment is still strong among the partys rank-and-file. There is also concern that the National Rallys policies would damage the French economy.
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lapfog_1
(29,809 posts)If I were a Jew in France ( I am neither ), I would be very worried about a party with that history, no matter what the current situation is in Gaza and Israel.
Putin must be very happy to read all the shit that is going down around the EU and in the USA regarding the rise of fascist and racist politics.
appalachiablue
(42,207 posts)Cha
(302,367 posts)in charge.
Not the "far left" or the "far right".