During an appearance on Radio J , Manuel Valls launched a particularly harsh attack against Jean-Luc Mélenchon and La France Insoumise, whom he accused of fostering a dangerous ideological climate and legitimizing an antisemitism he now considers “unashamed.” According to the former Prime Minister, the positions taken by the leader of La France Insoumise and his movement are a continuation of the rhetoric once espoused by Dieudonné and Alain Soral, but now, in his view, given a “political veneer” that makes them more influential.
“Mélenchon has lent credibility to this antisemitic ideology. It’s no longer marginal, and that’s what’s worrying,” asserts Manuel Valls, arguing that La France Insoumise (LFI) has placed certain radical ideas “at the heart of public debate.” He accuses the party of seeking to “capture the Muslim vote” by advocating an alliance between the radical left and “organizations influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood.” According to him, LFI leaders have become “useful idiots and accomplices” in a project aimed at influencing French society.
The former head of government believes that La France Insoumise’s (LFI) discourse is based on an ideological vision that designates the Jew as the central figure in the oppressions attributed to the West. “In the name of criticizing capitalism and the West, it is the Jew who is targeted,” he argues, drawing parallels with Jeremy Corbyn in the United Kingdom and certain progressive movements in Spain and the United States. Valls also accuses a segment of the radical left of having downplayed the violence committed on October 7, including the rapes attributed to Hamas , due to a “victim mentality” that absolves the Palestinians of all responsibility .
Returning to the French political situation, Manuel Valls believes that Emmanuel Macron’s second term is “a shipwreck” and that the country is going through “a regime crisis and a democratic crisis.” He also considers that the fight waged by Israel against Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran is “also ours,” recalling the parallels he draws between the attacks of October 7 in Israel and those of November 13, 2015, in France.
“We have an internal enemy,” he warns, asserting that hatred of Israel today constitutes “the cement” of converging ideological currents, and that “anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism.”
