Moderate French political parties must form a government coalition without La France Insoumise, Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF) president Yonathan Arfi told The Jerusalem Post in an interview after the second round of parliamentary elections on Sunday, warning that the far-left party leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon was undemocratic and a threat the republic’s Jews.
The left-wing New Popular Front (NPF) coalition, which includes the far-left La France Insoumise (LFI), won according to exit polls the most seats in the National Assembly, with President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Ensemble and National Rally (RN) securing the second and third most seats, respectively. None of the blocs hold enough seats for majority government and must form a coalition to pass legislation.
“We are waiting for the outcome of the negotiations. We do not know what type of government we will have,” said Arfi. “Everything that happens next for the Jews depends on the government that is formed.”
CRIF and other French Jewish groups had waged a campaign calling for support for moderates and against RN and LFI. Now, with an RN majority parliament averted, CRIF is looking to the next fight to ensure that LFI is not included in a coalition.
“The fight was against the extreme right and extreme left,” said Arfi. “We need to raise awareness among the moderate left that it will not be acceptable to be in a coalition with Mélenchon.”
After the success of NPF on Sunday night, local media reported far-left celebratory riots erupted in France, with some setting fires and detonating fireworks. Anti-Israel groups shared a video of a Sunday protest in which many participants waved Palestinian flags.
Mélenchon made Gaza a chief campaign item, said Arfi and the riots were typical of his encouragement of political violence for the LFI leader to get his way. Melechon was also attempting to exert pressure through the media to be included in the coalition.
‘A person who is a threat against the Jews’
“Mélenchon is a person who is a threat against the Jews,” said Arfi, accusing LFI and its leader of fueling the anti-Israel climate in France and putting a “target on the back of all Jews who support Israel.”
Arfi insisted that Mélenchon was the most hated French politician. The French leftist politician was not a democrat, as evidenced by his dictatorial rule of his party, Arfi added.
According to CRIF, the way forward was for all the moderates in the center, left, and right to work together to form a coalition. Arfi said that the exit polls showed that such a coalition was feasible.
“The only possible coalition is democratic and Republican,” said Arfi, adding that CRIF and other Jewish groups would continue to advocate for these values.
If Mélenchon were to enter the coalition, it would be difficult for French Jewry, but according to Arfi, “as Jews in the diaspora, we cannot escape fighting for our Jewish identity.”
Jews always needed to fight for recognition and against the stigmatization of Zionist identity, and if LFI entered the coalition, Arfi said that they would fight even harder.
“I’m always concerned about the future, but French Jews are here to stay, and we are here to fight,” said Arfi.
Arfi dismissed concerns that the hard stance that CRIF, the Chief Rabbi of France, the Central Consistory, and other groups had taken against RN could foster more antisemitism on the right, saying that Jews were a small percentage of the voting population and could not be held responsible for the outcome.
The Jews were not alone in their fight against extremism, according to Arfi, but he acknowledged that the Jewish people were living in a “very tough period.”
As Jews, Arfi believed that one had to hold true to one’s values and that “our main responsibility is to tell the world never to underestimate the extreme right and extreme left, and that another path is possible, and this path in the middle—a democratic and republican one.”
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