Anti-Semitism: Dupond-Moretti challenges the far left, Nupes leaves the hemicycle

Alexandre Chauveau, edited by Gauthier Delomez with AFP 7:24 p.m., August 02, 2022

Asked about anti-Semitism on Tuesday, Minister of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti pointed to "the far left" and a recent controversial motion for a resolution on Israel, provoking outraged reactions from the deputies of the Nupes coalition and their departure from the hemicycle.

The minister was responding to a question from related MP LR Meyer Habib about the perpetrators of the 1982 Rue des Rosiers attack.

A Nupes resolution described as "foul" by LR Meyer Habib

This deputy close to former Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu got carried away at the end of his question against the "new anti-Semitism" of "Islamo-leftists", "especially on the left of this hemicycle".

Meyer Habib castigated a "foul resolution of 37 Nupe deputies", illustrating according to him a "hatred of Jews and Israel".

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Initiated by the communist Jean-Paul Lecoq, this motion for a resolution signed by around forty elected representatives from the left condemned Israel's "apartheid regime" against the Palestinians, "an institutionalized regime of oppression and systematic domination by a single racial group".

The text had caused controversy on the left and provoked a series of condemnations of associations.

Éric Dupont-Moretti's response

In his response, before harshly attacking "the far right", Éric Dupond-Moretti addressed a "little word to the far left": he listed "Corbyn, apartheid, the words you have chosen to comment on the speech of the President of the Republic, these words stick to your skin".

In addition to the resolution on "apartheid", the Keeper of the Seals refers in particular to the presence of the former British Labor leader Jérémy Corbyn - accused of laxity against anti-Semitism - with LFI candidates during the legislative campaign.

His arrest prompted the departure of elected leftists.

An attack by the minister deemed "unwelcome" by the PS

On their return, the leader of the socialist group Boris Vallaud deemed the minister's attack "unwelcome": the "country does not need division on this subject".

“We know that you are Republicans and that you defend the fight against anti-Semitism like us, but that is not the case for everyone on these benches”, replied Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, targeting LFI. .

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In the hemicycle, the ecologist Sandrine Rousseau judged "unworthy to qualify the LFI deputies as anti-Semitic".

"Anti-Semitism is settled in the courts and its trivialization contributes to its spread," she added.

The rebellious Aymeric Caron asked "apologies" to the Prime Minister.

Her colleague Murielle Lepvraud said she felt "insulted" by the words of Elisabeth Borne and Éric Dupond-Moretti.

Éric Dupont-Moretti attacks Jean-Marie Le Pen

For her part, LREM MP Prisca Thevenot defended the government against a "new form of anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism".

"We condemn the fact of posing a resolution which explains (...) that the State of Israel is an + regime of apartheid +" or that "Israelis are a racial group", she underlined.

Éric Dupond-Moretti had also targeted "the far right" and the words of the "founding father" Jean-Marie Le Pen on the "detail of history".

"Where have Loustau, Chatillon, Péninque, Soral, Dieudonné and his quenelle gone? Where are they? Hidden in your electoral campaign", he launched at the National Rally.