French Jews consider the unthinkable: voting for a party with an anti-Semitic past

That’s why many French people were shocked this week when Klarsfeld defended Marine Le Pen’s far-right party, which counts a former Nazi paramilitary among its founders. Klarsfeld, an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor, said the main threat to France’s Jews now comes from the far left and that he would not hesitate to vote for Le Pen’s party, the National Rally, during the next legislative elections if the alternative were a coalition of left-wing parties, the New Popular Front.

“The National Rally supports the Jews, supports the State of Israel,” Klarsfeld said on national television. “When there is an anti-Jewish party and a pro-Jewish party, I will vote for the pro-Jewish party.”

Klarsfeld’s comments are the result of a rapprochement between French Jews and the far right which is reorganizing French politics and helping to push the National Rally to the gates of power. The anti-Semitic past of the National Rally has long made it radioactive in the eyes of Jewish voters and a large part of the French electorate; The party’s founder, Le Pen’s father Jean-Marie, was repeatedly convicted of anti-Semitism for calling the Nazi gas chambers a “detail” of World War II history.

Today, the taboo is fading. The National Rally’s efforts among French Jews, particularly following the October 7 attack in Israel, solidified the party’s place in the mainstream of French politics, helping it win the largest number of seats in the legislative elections, which conclude next month. French President Emmanuel Macron called for early parliamentary elections after the National Rally defeated his centrist party in this month’s European elections. Polls show the National Rally in the lead in the first round of the French elections scheduled for June 30, followed by the New Popular Front.

It is unclear whether National Rally candidates will have enough support to win an absolute majority in the National Assembly after the July 7 runoff election.

The Hamas attacks of October 7 and the subsequent Israeli offensive in Gaza had a profound impact in France, deepening political divisions within Europe’s largest Jewish community and one of its largest communities Muslims. Leaders of the far-left France Insoumise party did not immediately condemn the attack, but later sharply criticized Israel. Jewish groups and Macron’s government say the party’s rhetoric has fueled a rise in anti-Semitism in France since October 7.

These fears were amplified by the alleged assault and rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl last weekend in the Paris suburb of Courbevoie. French authorities have filed preliminary charges against three teenagers for the crime.

The National Rally took the opportunity to attack the far left and make clear to the public that it has renounced anti-Semitism. Jordan Bardella, the party’s chairman, participated in a march against anti-Semitism after the attack and strongly defended Israel.

“This gave the National Rally a chance to redeem itself,” said Olivier Costa, professor-researcher at the University of Sciences Po in Paris and the National Center for Scientific Research. The anti-Muslim rhetoric of the National Rally also resonates with part of the conservative party. Jewish electorate, he added.

Then, the Socialist and Green parties decided to form an alliance with France Insoumise before the early elections. The alliance’s platform condemns the Hamas attack and one of its leaders is a socialist member of the European Parliament, Raphaël Glucksmann, of Jewish origin. But most French Jews say they cannot vote for the alliance because of the presence of La France Unbowed.

“We have no confidence in France Insoumise,” said Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France, or CRIF, a group of Jewish associations. “This is a real turning point in our relations with part of the left.”

Many French Jews, however, are wary of the National Rally. Despite the pro-Jewish and pro-Israeli rhetoric from party leaders, Jews fear that anti-Semitic sentiment is still strong among the party’s rank-and-file members. There are also fears that the National Rally’s policies could harm the French economy.

“It’s not good. It’s just a little less worse,” said Jonathan Behar, a 42-year-old entrepreneur.

The National Rally plans to restrict the rights of foreign residents legally residing in France and tighten access to citizenship, social assistance and housing. Le Pen also wants to increase minimum sentences and establish a presumption of self-defense for security forces. She sought to build a coalition with Les Républicains, the French conservative party, before the elections. But most Republican deputies refused, saying they would never form alliances with the far right.

Le Pen has spent years trying to distance her party from its controversial founders, including her father and Pierre Bousquet, who was a member of the French division of the Waffen-SS during World War II. Then called Front National, the party was ostracized by mainstream French politics as the country grappled with its role in the deportation of tens of thousands of French Jews to Nazi death camps during World War II.

Le Pen changed the party’s name to National Rally in 2018. She also changed some of her positions, such as the plan to take France out of the euro, which were particularly unpopular with the French public. These measures helped her win more than 40% of the vote in the 2022 presidential election runoff against Macron, the far-right’s best performance in modern French history.

After the October 7 attack, Le Pen met with Klarsfeld several times, most recently in February in his apartment in the 8th arrondissement of Paris.

“The National Rally has matured,” Klarsfeld said in this week’s interview.

Le Pen rejoiced after the broadcast of Klarsfeld’s remarks, calling him “a great conscience and guardian of the memory of the Shoah.”

But the party has not completely disowned the figures of its controversial past.

After the October 7 attack, a television journalist asked Bardella, 28, if Jean-Marie Le Pen was an anti-Semite.

“I was born in 1995. You are talking to me about a time that I did not know,” said Bardella, before adding: “I do not believe that Jean-Marie Le Pen is an anti-Semite. Now, I “I obviously wouldn’t say it. I won’t make the comments he made about the ‘detail’ because, to me, the horrors of the Holocaust are not a detail of history.”

All of this has left French Jews pondering the dilemma of voting for a party that was once almost a metonym for French anti-Semitism.

“I never imagined voting in favor of the National Rally to stand together against anti-Semitism,” writer Alain Finkielkraut told French magazine Le Point this month. “The current situation is heartbreaking for the Jews of France.”

Write to Matthew Dalton at [email protected] and Noémie Bisserbe at [email protected]