In the National Assembly,
Rebellious France is becoming ever more isolated. After several days of controversy, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party once again found itself in turmoil this Tuesday, during heated debates in the National Assembly on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For refusing to explicitly qualify Hamas – responsible for the attacks in Israel – as a “terrorist” movement, LFI officials suffered the wrath of the government, other opposition groups, and even received criticism from their left-wing partners. A strategy which puts a new blow to the ever more fragile Nupes alliance.
Mathilde Panot cuts short her press conference
“What is your definition of Hamas today? » Given the controversies of the last few hours, the question seemed expected. But she surprisingly confused Mathilde Panot at the end of the morning, during her press conference. After turning to her colleagues, the president of the LFI group had difficulty giving a precise answer: “It is a… the armed branch which is today responsible for war crimes, that’s it…”. Relaunched, the rebellious elected official became annoyed, before hastily leaving the room, to the amazement of the journalists present.
A few minutes earlier, she affirmed that her party would not change “one iota” its position on the situation in the Middle East, defending her party’s controversial statement on last weekend’s attacks. “We condemn all war crimes, which aim at terror, so we can call it terrorist,” she said. “But what bothers us about this question is that it doesn’t allow us to think about the situation. It’s not just a democracy that would be attacked by terrorists. There is a complex situation, years and years of colonization and blockade.”
Haro on LFI in the hemicycle
At the time of questions to the government, at the beginning of the afternoon, the tension was palpable in the bays. “Faced with this barbarity, I want to reiterate that Israel is a friendly country to which I want to reaffirm, in the name of national representation, our total solidarity and our unconditional support,” launched the President of the Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet , at the opening of the session, triggering a round of applause from all the groups at the Palais-Bourbon… except the rebels, probably embarrassed by the unconditionality of this support. Booed here and there, the LFI elected officials were then targeted by their political adversaries.
“Those who support the unbearable, excuse it or relativize it, and some of whom sit on these benches, attack human values. They will answer politically, including to their allies, and if necessary before the courts,” denounced Marine Le Pen. Meyer Habib, related LR deputy for the constituency of French people living abroad, which includes Israel, went much further: “I did not think that anti-Semitism would be unleashed openly again on the left of these benches”. More measured, the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, rather regretted the lack of “national cohesion”, looking at the rebellious benches. “In these tragic moments, I find it shocking and distressing to hear dissonant voices even on these benches.”
La Nupes shaken but not sunk
From the podium, Mathilde Panot denounced “Franco-French controversies” and called for a “ceasefire” in the Middle East, while the LR elected officials and part of the majority preferred to leave the Hemicycle. Maintaining the LFI position continued to cause turmoil within the Nupes. Among the communists and ecologists who have described Hamas as “terrorist”, but especially within the Socialist Party. In the corridors of the Assembly, Jérôme Guedj notably looked crestfallen. “When we have a Bataclan, we don’t discuss the geostrategy of Daesh…” he whispered to journalists. “Political error”, “unforgivable”, “disgusting”… The socialists have wholeheartedly denounced the position of their allies… but without going so far as to call into question the left-wing coalition. Some PS elected officials simply indicated that they were suspending their participation in the preparation of a common counter-budget to the Nupes, alongside the 2024 budget.