Serge Klarsfeld spent almost his entire life tracking down Nazi war criminals. But now he, of all people, is acquitting Le Pen’s party of being right-wing extremists. This is like a gift for her.
Serge Klarsfeld welcomes you to his office on the ground floor of a stately old building near the Champs-Élysées. Together with his German wife Beate, he has documented their joint fight against right-wing extremism on shelves that reach to the ceiling. Books, notebooks, folders upon folders. Her work, her entire life is in these spaces.
Serge invites Klarsfeld to speak at a huge, plain desk with a wooden top. On the wall hangs the map of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp where his father died. Klarsfeld gets straight to the point. Today, the Rassemblement National (RN) is no longer an enemy of the Jews – on the contrary, says the 88-year-old: “I see Rassemblement National as an ally.”
Finally, the party’s parliamentary group leader, Marine Le Pen, broke away from Jean-Marie le Pen, her anti-Semitic father and founder of the predecessor Front National party – and even threw him out of the party.
Today the danger threatens from another side. The attacks on Jews in recent years have come from radicalized Muslims. The Rassemblement National, on the other hand, is becoming more and more respectable. It is normal for Jews and RNs to get closer.
Serge and Beate Klarsfeld have dedicated their lives to the fight against right-wing extremism and hatred of Jews. Today they see an ally in Le Pen’s party.
Different enemies, new allies
In fact, in France that was the case worst violence against Jews in the past 20 years by Islamists. After the Hamas attack on October 7th last year, the number of anti-Semitic acts increased by around 280 percent compared to the previous year.
The RN then unconditionally condemned Hamas as a terrorist organization. The party representatives also took part in the large demonstration against anti-Semitism in November, while President Emmanuel Macron stayed away and at the same time castigated the participation of the right-wing extremists: They had no business there.
Klarsfeld, on the other hand, welcomed the Rassemblement National’s participation in the march – a thunderbolt! The 28-year-old RN party leader Jordan Bardella received Klarsfeld’s words with benevolence: “I followed very closely what Monsieur Klarsfeld said. That we can no longer be accused of anti-Semitism and that we are welcome on the march against anti-Semitism.”
Forbearance for “youthful sins”
Klarsfeld sticks to his position, even though Bardella said in an interview in November that he did not believe party founder Jean-Marie le Pen was an anti-Semite. He was convicted several times for anti-Semitic statements. Klarsfeld brushes aside Bardella’s statement as a youthful sin.
“For me, a party is right-wing extremist when it is anti-Jewish. That is its DNA. The moment it gives up this anti-Jewish identity, I no longer consider it an enemy.”
The Jews in France are in a situation in which they cannot neglect their potential allies and protectors. So for him the priority question is “anti-Jewish or not.”
Le Pen’s strategy is working
In doing so, one of the most famous Nazi hunters in the world gives the Rassemblement National absolution, so to speak. Marine le Pen’s strategy of de-diabolization and normalization seems to have worked completely.
Klarsfeld is not deterred by the fact that the hatred of many members and voters of the RN is no longer directed against the Jews, but rather against the Muslims in the country. Isn’t a party whose members and supporters often place Muslims under general suspicion and see them as a threat to France’s national identity as a threat to the country’s unity?
Klarsfeld does not address this question. Instead, he says: “While Jews have accepted the rules of French life since Napoleon, there is a proportion of Muslims, the size of which cannot be precisely determined, who do not want to do so.”
This applies, for example, to the separation of state and religion. And that is a problem.
Opposition from the Central Council
Jonathan Arfi strikes a different tone. The president of the Central Council of Jewish Institutions (CRIF) warns against calling the Rassemblement National an ally. He emphasizes that he does not share Klarsfeld’s position. The RN is certainly no longer the same as it was 20 or 30 years ago, but it remains populist and demagogic.
“For us Jews in France, the Rassemblement National is a false friend that pretends to fight against anti-Semitism, but is unable to denounce anti-Semitism in its own ranks and in the extreme right camp.”
The CRIF is very vigilant when it comes to exploiting anti-Semitism politically.
“No more fear of the RN”
Serge Klarsfeld emphasizes that he himself will not vote for the Rassemblement National. The Jews in France had other allies; the Republicans, for example, and parts of the political center.
But he is convinced that the majority of Jews in France are already voting for the Rassemblement National. “They don’t say it, but they are no longer afraid of the RN at all.” And that is understandable.
Just two years ago, during the 2022 presidential election campaign, Serge Klarsfeld signed a call in the newspaper “Libération” to vote against candidate Marine “Le Pen, daughter of racism and anti-Semitism”. Those days are over.
Julia Borutta, ARD Paris, tagesschau, March 1, 2024 11:45 a.m