The European Parliament elections saw over six in ten Muslims in France back the far-left party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who like other leading leftists in Europe has faced accusations of antisemitism and of cozying up to radical Islamists.
A study conducted by Ifop for the Catholic La Croix newspaper found that 62 per cent of Muslims voted for the La France Insoumise (France Unbowed/LFI) list in the European elections on Sunday in which the far-left party won nearly 2.5 million votes for a projected 9 seats in the European Parliament.
The LFI was distantly followed by the centre-left neo-liberal Place Publique party of Raphaël Glucksmann which received 8 per cent of the Muslim vote and then by President Macron’s Rennaisance and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, both of whom secured 6 per cent of the Muslim vote.
According to the survey, the strong support for the far-left party was “particularly motivated by the war in Gaza”, with 83 per cent of Muslims in France citing the conflict between Israel and Hamas terrorists as their top issue in the European elections, compared to 25 per cent for the overall population.
La France Insoumise, led by 72-year-old Jean-Luc Mélenchon — a socialist often described as France’s equivalent to America’s Bernie Sanders or Britain’s Jeremy Corbyn — has long catered to the Muslim vote, with Mélenchon winning 69 per cent of Muslims in the 2022 presidential election.
The widespread support for his leftist party among Muslims comes as the LFI made the issue of Gaza a central theme of its campaign, having even selected prominent Franco-Palestinian activist Rima Hassan to represent the party in the EU Parliament.
Ahead of the vote, an LFI member of the National Assembly Sébastien Delogu sparked national controversy for waving a Palestinian flag in the French parliament during a debate on the official recognition of Palestine as a state, which many took as a symbolic demonstration that the far-left party is not loyal to France.
Apparently, out of concern of angering their large Muslim base, La France Insoumise also decided to boycott bipartisan demonstrations against antisemitism in Paris following the October 7th Hamas terror attacks in Israel which saw Islamists murder over 1,200 people and kidnap hundreds more.
Mélenchon has personally attempted to downplay the rise of antisemitism within his own country following the October 7th attacks, claiming in a June blog post that “contrary to what official propaganda says, anti-Semitism remains residual in France. It is, in any case, completely absent from popular gatherings.”
In contradiction to the leftist leader’s claims, statistics from the French Ministry of the Interior found that there was a 300 per cent increase in anti-Jewish acts in the first quarter of this year.
Despite facing accusations of antisemitism, Mélenchon successfully rallied support for a left-wing election pact this week. Dubbed the “popular front”, comprised of the Socialist Party, La France Insoumise, the green Les Écologists, and the French Communist Party, the alliance will attempt to block the populist right from taking power.
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