Protests in France | France: whipping boy Left Party LFI

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, candidate of the left-wing party La France Insoumise (LFI), knows how to defend himself against attacks from the right. Photo: AFP/Lou Benoist The French domestic secret service DGSI as well as political scientists and journalists specializing in this topic have a clear position: they blame violent and masked ultra-left and anarchist activists for the violent riots on the sidelines of the protest demonstrations on October 17th. They were joined by gangs of criminal youths from the suburbs who took advantage of the circumstances to loot and blindly destroy and set fire.

These analyzes do not prevent politicians from the government camp as well as from the right-wing and right-wing extremist opposition from blaming the acts of violence on their favorite opponent, the radical left-wing movement La France insoumise (LFI). LFI officially condemns violence as a means of political debate at every opportunity. Nevertheless, LFI is accused of fomenting a climate of confrontation from which violence against state institutions, police and property will emerge. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu publicly calls on LFI to “choose between the Republic and those who challenge it with violence”. He accuses the movement of “deliberately encouraging and exacerbating social confrontation and unrest.”

Former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe speaks of LFI's "significant political responsibility for the violence." Through its rhetoric and its proximity to radical left-wing milieus, the movement promotes an "atmosphere in which riots are legitimized or at least politically trivialized." It should be remembered that Édouard Philippe is a candidate for the 2027 presidential election and that LFI founder Jean-Luc Mélenchon is a direct competitor for him.

The outbursts of the party leader of the right-wing opposition Republicans, Bruno Retailleau, who is also running for president, are particularly hateful. In leaflets and videos on the Internet he directly associates LFI with violence, looting, destruction and arson under the heading “La France insoumise – the arsonous France”. The slander by Marine Le Pen - also a presidential candidate and, according to surveys, the most promising - is similarly unrestrained and unobjective. Gérard Larcher, who belongs to the Republican Party and is President of the Senate, the second chamber of Parliament, goes one step further. He believes it is “time to raise the question of banning LFIs.” In doing so, he questions the right to exist of a democratically elected opposition party represented in parliament.

Right-wing politicians also often use LFI's sharp criticism of the police's brutal actions to insinuate that the movement is fundamentally opposed to the republic's institutions and instruments of power.

However, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who loves polemics and verbal exchanges, occasionally provides ammunition to his opponents on the right with ambivalent statements. Just recently, in an interview, when asked what he had to say about the police and gendarmes who were seriously injured at the weekend, he replied: "It's their professional risk."

The fact that he rejects violence as a means of politics but does not condemn last weekend's acts of violence does not speak for him. To justify this, he says: “Being at a distance from methods of struggle does not mean being at a distance from this struggle.”

Mélenchon called on the members of La France insoumise to wear a white band on their arm next Saturday, the Yellow Vests Day of Action, and to work alongside the demonstrators to ensure that everything takes place calmly and non-violently.

After last weekend, La France insoumise has once again officially rejected all claims that it tolerates and promotes violence. The movement accuses the government of trying to distract from its own failures in ensuring public safety and dealing with the demonstrations.

According to media reports, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez has ordered the domestic intelligence service DGSI, which reports to him, to "prove" LFI's guiding hand in the high school student protests and the riots on October 17th. If this “order” actually existed, LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard has already announced legal action against the Interior Minister.

Meanwhile, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau has said that, based on current information, she cannot confirm that a large number of the violent criminals arrested belonged to the extreme left. Many of the accused have no apparent political motivation at all.

This article cost you nothing. Us: research, production and technology. We saved on office rent as well as on printing and distribution. And we gave up salary. Nevertheless, the calculation doesn't work without you. We need 300,000 euros by the end of the year. You pay what you can, in return we keep writing.

No paywall, no fine print, just one goal: that nd stays.