Marine Le Pen’s support of Israel seen as move away from party’s antisemitic past
The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s support of Israel in the wake of the Hamas attacks is being seen as part of a long-running drive to move her National Rally party away from its toxic, antisemitic past before a run for the presidency in 2027.
National Rally, which is now the biggest opposition party in the French parliament and is polling ahead of Emmanuel Macron’s centrists for next year’s European elections, has firmly supported Israel’s right to defend itself since the Hamas attacks on 7 October and the ensuing bombardment of Gaza. […]
Le Pen’s support of Israel has been seen by some commentators as a certain political opportunism. She has long sought to “normalise” her party and move it away from its jack-booted, antisemitic past, which was seen as a brake on the party’s new political ambitions. In 2015, Le Pen expelled her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, the party founder, after he reiterated comments belittling the Holocaust, for which he has several convictions. She later changed the party name from the National Front to National Rally.
In a highly symbolic move, several of Le Pen’s parliamentarians attended a march in Paris in October led by Jewish groups in support of Israel. This was a radical change from previous years. In 2018, Le Pen attempted to take part in a march commemorating Mireille Knoll, a Jewish pensioner killed in an antisemitic murder, but had to move aside amid comments by some of “Fascists out”.
Yeah, they saw through these cunts in 2018 and they should be seeing through them now too. There seems to be a lot of this going about at the moment with far-right figures coming out on Israel’s side in the current debacle, because it’s handy for them that Muslims are the “official” bad guys in all the discourse; they still hate Jews too, of course, but taking Israel’s side makes them look more respectable, more part of the common conversation and less of the extreme fringe. Which is all that Marine’s trying to achieve here, too, I’m sure… under whatever name they trade, I’ve no doubt she and her party are every bit as antisemitic as they were when her dad was running it; they’re just more careful than him about saying that shit out loud…
