France Divisions Exposed By March Against Anti-Semitism

The march was called by the two speakers of the French legislature, Yael Braun-Pivet and Gerard Larcher AFP

A call for a weekend march in Paris against anti-Semitism sparked bitter squabbling between political parties Wednesday despite a surge in anti-Semitic incidents in the country.

The hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party said it would boycott the "great civic march" called by the speakers of the country's two houses of parliament for the French capital Sunday.

At the same time, the participation of the far-right National Rally (RN) is creating a headache for the left and centre-left, who argue that the renamed National Front (FN) founded by convicted Holocaust denier Jean-Marie Le Pen has no place in such a gathering.

Olivier Veran, the spokesman of President Emmanuel Macron's centrist government, said Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne would take part but insisted the RN "did not have a place" in the march.

Communist leader Fabien Roussel said he would "not march alongside" Marine Le Pen's RN, accusing it of being descended from people who were "repeatedly condemned for anti-Semitic remarks" and who "collaborated" with Nazi Germany.

"It's important that there is a march against anti-Semitism," Roussel told public broadcaster France 2.

"It is not a question of being absent from a march against anti-Semitism. We will perhaps march in another place, but not with them," he insisted.

The two speakers of the French legislature, Yael Braun-Pivet of the National Assembly and Gerard Larcher of the Senate, announced a "general mobilisation" late Tuesday against the upsurge in anti-Semitic acts in France.

But the LFI's firebrand leader, Jean-Luc Melenchon, immediately dismissed the idea, describing it in a post on X, formerly Twitter, as a meeting of "friends of unconditional support for the massacre" in Gaza.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said she would not be deterred from taking part.

"I call on all our members and voters to come and join this march," she said Wednesday.

"The more people there are, the better," she said, adding that she was ready to march "at the back" if her attendance was such a problem.

Tensions have been rising in Paris, home to large Jewish and Muslim communities, in the wake of the attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel on October 7 which has been followed by Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

France has recorded more than a thousand anti-Semitic acts since the deadly October 7 attack, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Sunday.