The conflict between Israel and Hamas has exacerbated the fractures in the French lef
Differences in the qualification of the Palestinian armed group have further divided the progressive coalition, especially regarding a part of France Insoumise and its leader, who refuses to consider the group “terrorist”. The Socialist Party announced this week a moratorium on its participation in Nupes.
The New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes) is on the verge of implosion and most of its leaders point to the leader of Insoumise France (LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon, as responsible, whom they blame for not doing enough strong in his statements about Hamas. On the same day of the offensive launched by Hamas, the French Communist Party (PCF) was the first to react, calling the attacks “unacceptable and unjustified.” Europe Ecology-The Greens denounced “terrorist acts” and the first secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, expressed his “total condemnation of the attacks launched by Hamas,” adding that “terrorism not justice.”
However, the statement published by the Francia Insumisa group in the National Assembly does not mention terrorism nor sufficiently condemn the events, in the opinion of other Nupes parties. The LFI chose to refer to the “armed offensive by the Palestinian forces led by Hamas”, which it framed in “the context of the intensification of Israel’s policy of occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. We deplore the death of Israel and Palestinian. “Our thoughts are with all the victims.”
Since then, the pressure on the LFI to toughen the language has been increasing. The party’s position was exploited by many members of the Government, from the right and the far right, as a means of attacking the party and its leader. But the truth is that the official line of the LFI has also been criticized by its allies in Nupes and by its own party figures.
The conflict between Israel and Hamas has also created a deep dilemma for the Socialist Party. The line against the current secretary general, who was against Nupes and any alliance with Jean-Luc Mélenchon from the beginning, pushed the party to leave the coalition. Several influential members, including Anne Hidalgo, called for a definite break with the LFI and its leader in a forum published by Le Monde. After a week of evasion, Faure finally announced this Tuesday on the radio microphones of France Inter “a moratorium” on the participation of his party in Nupes.
The sequence was closed this Thursday in a violent exchange on X, formerly Twitter, between Mélenchon and the leader of the French socialists in the European Parliament, Raphaël Glucksmann. “So the refusal to call for a ceasefire, the refusal of the humanitarian corridor, the refusal to lift the blockade, that is what Glucksmann’s PS calls a clear condemnation of crimes,” Mélenchon charged. “Everyone should remember that in the European elections.” “Bad timing (for that comment). “We voted in favor of a ceasefire, the corridor and the lifting of the blockade,” Glucksmann replied. “We have a direction. You can no longer fear anyone and, in fact, we will see each other in the European elections.
