Mélenchon's war on Israel and Azerbaijan

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the French radical left leader, has found himself in yet another scandal. This time he compared a French university head to a Nazi, which has left many wondering if the French politician is up to the political standards and can answer to the aspiration of the left-leaning voters.

While the 72-year-old politician has previously managed to create a union of left political groups, his management of many subjects, including his strong desire not to name Hamas as a terrorist group, has led many socialist and radical left voters to question whether he is the right figure to lead the union of left political parties, aka Nupes.

Signs of annoyance are emerging in his camp, especially as Mélenchon campaigns mostly on his stance towards Israel’s war against Hamas rather than on European issues.

The Nupes coalition fell apart over Mélenchon’s refusal to describe Hamas as a “terrorist” outfit after its Oct. 7 attack against Israel as well as comparing a university head who canceled one of his conferences to Holocaust mastermind Adolf Eichmann.

His former allies inside his own camp are now looking to take over the political party he heads and use the moment to build a post-Mélenchon left. One of them is François Ruffin, a former journalist who is part of Mélenchon’s France Unbowed party (LFI) in parliament but is not in his inner circle. Ruffin has already said he was “getting prepared” for a 2027 presidential run.

“I’ll never rejoice in the weakness or the splintering of the left, but we need to build the future, and I think that will be without Mélenchon,” Socialist lawmaker Arthur Delaporte said. Communist leader Fabien Roussel said Mélenchon has “discredited himself.”

While Jean-Luc Mélenchon is more concentrated on the war in Gaza instead of European matters, his focus leads to some unforeseen consequences.

As he was speaking out at several universities, the University of Lille canceled his appearance last week due to security concerns. This led to a reaction on the part of Mélenchon, who compared the school’s president to Eichmann, a Nazi who said at his 1961 trial for organizing the Holocaust that he had only been following orders.

“Eichmann said (he) merely obeyed the law as it stood in (his) country. So they say they’re obeying the law, and they implement immoral measures that are justified by nothing and no one,” Mélenchon said.

For Delaporte, Mélenchon’s “aggressive strategy” ahead of the June election has been motivated by his desire to remain relevant, claims Politico.

This is confirmed by Antoine Léaument, a member of parliament for LFI, who said that he believes attacks against the radical left could work in the movement’s favor.

One of the most prominent features of Mélenchon, is to gather votes from the French Arab population, claiming that the Muslim community is important to France. One of the demonstrations of such “support” to Muslims, was his reaction to the attack committed by Hamas against Israeli civilians in October.

Taking that into account, his support for Muslims undeniably took a wrong turn. According to the Guardian, since the attack, Mélenchon and other prominent members of his party, LFI, have repeatedly declined to call Hamas a terrorist group (a conclusion the EU came to about Hamas a full 20 years ago). LFI’s initial communique on October 7 used Hamas’s own language, calling the attack “an armed offensive by Palestinian forces” that came “in the context of the intensification by Israel of the policy of occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem”.

Despite that, according to the French website Lagazette, Jean-Luc Mélenchon joined the voices of the most Islamophobic politicians during the Armenian community meeting on April 24, organized by the Conseil de coordination des organisations arméniennes de France (CCAF) and traveled directly to Yerevan on April 24 to assure the Armenians that "Recognition of the Armenian genocide is a necessity for the construction of a universal conscience".

During his trip to Armenia, Jean-Luc Mélenchon continued with his anti-semitic tone vis-à-vis Israel, accusing it of supplying weaponry to Azerbaijan, and accusing Azerbaijan of providing military bases for Israel’s operations, continuing with the trend of disinformation, that is usually relayed in the social media.

“Faced with Israeli drones acquired in large quantities by the authoritarian, oil-fueled Azerbaijani regime of Aliyev (the son), it would have taken more than poor Soviet-era artillery. Between 2016 and 2020, Israel supplied 69% of the weapons imported by Azerbaijan. In return, Azerbaijan provides Israel with oil and a base for its operations on Iran.”

With that in mind, it is important to understand whether, Mélenchon is a defender of Muslims, or just the ones that serve his political goals, i.e. French Muslims that are his electorate.

Adil Malikov