French nationalist party to join march against antisemitism, drawing criticism

The controversy has raged for a week, with politicians from across the spectrum urging against the participation of the Rassemblement National.

By Ben Cohen, The Algemeiner

The umbrella organization representing France’s Jewish community of 450,000 has added its voice to the controversy over the participation of a right-wing nationalist party in a march against antisemitism planned for Sunday.

The controversy has raged for a week, with politicians from across the spectrum urging against the participation of the Rassemblement National (RN — “National Rally”) on Sunday. The successor party to the Front National (FN), the RN has in recent years attempted to cultivate support among French Jews with its uncompromising stance against immigration and its warning about the dangers of Islamism.

Crif — the national organization representing French Jews — has maintained its long-standing objection to both the FN and the RN, issuing a statement on Thursday that characterized both the RN and the far-left La France Insoumise (LFI — “France Rising”) as extremist parties outside the French republican tradition.

“In announcing that it would participate in this demonstration, the National Rally knew that it would create controversy, that it would divert the demonstration from its main purpose which is the fight against antisemitism,” Crif president Yonathan Arfi said.

Arfi went on to accuse the RN of attempting to “instrumentalize the march in an indecent way.”

He stressed Crif’s objection to marching alongside “people who are heirs to a party founded by former collaborators” with the Nazi occupation during World War II.

The co-founder of the RN, Pierre Bousquet, was a senior officer in the SS Charlemagne, an organization of French collaborators who served with the Nazi paramilitary organization.

The party’s first leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen — whose daughter Marine succeeded him — infamously referred to the Holocaust as a “minor detail” of World War II and refused to call Marshal Philippe Pétain, the head of the pro-Nazi government in France, a “traitor.” Those controversies were reignited last week when the RN’s new leader, Jordan Bardella, denied that Le Pen was antisemitic.

Arfi also strongly criticized the far-left LFI, which earlier this week said it would not march alongside the RN, charging the party with cooperating with “antisemites” and “Islamists.”