Europe's far right joins rallying cry against antisemitism, unsettling some Jews

[November 15, 2023]  By Michel Rose

PARIS (Reuters) - When more than 100,000 people marched in Paris against antisemitism on Sunday, one political group joining the crowd stood out – far-right Rassemblement National supporters with their leader, Marine Le Pen.

Their appearance was all the more remarkable considering Le Pen's father, National Front founder Jean-Marie, was convicted of inciting racial hatred for saying the gas chambers used to kill Jews during the Holocaust were "merely a detail in the history of the Second World War".

The march is the most striking sign to date that Le Pen's strategy to normalize the party's image is working, taking down one more barrier in her quest for respectability and boosting her chances in future elections, analysts say.

The shift is part of a strategy, being used by other far-right politicians in Europe including in Italy, Germany and Britain, to help bolster their anti-migration agenda while rebutting suggestions they are racist.

In France, analysts say Le Pen has implemented it so effectively that it is breaking the glass barrier many said blocked the far right from coming to power - a prospect that is horrifying critics who accuse her of political opportunism and of hiding her party's true colors.

Le Pen has long tried to distance herself from the most inflammatory rhetoric of her father, especially since she took over from him in 2015 and rebranded the party in 2018.

But other French parties kept a so-called "cordon sanitaire", or health barrier, to cordon off the party politically and symbolically, refusing to let it take part in the same demonstrations.

That came to an end on Sunday, with a march politicians and analysts see as a turning point in the party's history.

Although they marched at the back of the demo and not at the front with organizers, government officials and two former presidents, Le Pen and her lieutenants were able to take part without being roughed up, as has happened in previous protests.

"She had everything to gain from being at the march," Jean-Daniel Levy, a political analyst from pollster Harris Interactive, told Reuters. "For 2027, the reasons to oppose her are now fewer than they were even a little while ago."

Sandrine Rousseau, a Green lawmaker, said Le Pen's presence had made her uncomfortable. "It's a tipping point for the Rassemblement National, which is whitewashing the antisemitism of its birth."

EUROPE-WIDE STRATEGY

Inside the party, people in Le Pen's entourage are rubbing their hands in glee.

"Marine Le Pen was given rounds of applause several times in the march," a source close to her told Reuters. "The real turning point is that attempts to demonize us no longer work."

Le Pen's strategy fits into what has happened elsewhere in Europe, in Italy for instance, where Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government has taken a firmly pro-Israeli stance since the Israel-Hamas conflict broke out, a line it embraced long ago to gain respectability.

People hold placards which reads "Free the hostages" during a demonstration against antisemitism organised by the two heads of the French Parliament, as a surge in antisemitic offences increased in France, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Paris, France November 12, 2023. REUTERS/Claudia Greco/File Photo

Meloni, who joined a neo-fascist youth movement in her teenage years, last year pledged to fight "every kind of discrimination and antisemitism" as she commemorated Jewish journalists persecuted under fascist-era racial laws.

In Germany, the far-right Alternative for Germany has expressed its solidarity with Israel and urged the government to take measures to prevent "imported antisemitism" from Muslim migrants, despite the fact security services report antisemitism being present within the party.

In Britain, the right of the ruling Conservative Party has adopted a staunchly pro-Israel position and criticized the large demonstrations in support of Palestinians as "hate marches" led by "mobs".

DIVIDED JEWISH COMMUNITY

After days of debates on French TV shows, in which Le Pen's troops appeared embarrassed by questions about Jean-Marie Le Pen's past comments, his daughter received an unexpected boost from some well-known French Jewish figures.

"For me, the DNA of the far right is antisemitism. So when I see a big party abandoning antisemitism, Holocaust denial, and march towards the Republic's values, I'm glad," French lawyer and Nazi-hunter Serge Klarsfeld said in Le Figaro newspaper.

Jewish organizations are more than skeptical, however.

The main French Jewish advocacy group has accused Le Pen of political opportunism. "For me, it's a form of appropriation, of instrumentalization of the march, which is obscene," said Yonathan Arfi, head of the CRIF group.

In a case that shows the party is still fighting accusations of antisemitism, Le Pen has filed a libel complaint against her former economic adviser, Jean-Richard Sulzer, who said in 2021 her party was discriminating against Jews and not placing them in winnable constituencies. The trial started in September.

"No one is being duped by the far right's intention, which is to support one community to better exclude another," French government spokesman Olivier Veran told reporters.

But analysts say Le Pen and her party are succeeding in shifting public discourse and perceptions.

"They're changing the debate in their favour," pollster Levy said. "Voters are led to believe that the danger no longer comes from the far right, but from political Islam."

(Reporting by Michel Rose; additional reporting by Elizabeth Pineau and Juliette Jabkhiro in Paris, Angelo Amante in Rome, Sarah Marsh in Berlin and Rachel Armstrong in London; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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