Raphaël Glucksmann regretted on Wednesday that Jean-Luc Mélenchon “appears” with the logo of an association “which denies the existence of the State of Israel” to announce the conference he is to hold on Thursday at the university of Lille, at the initiative of a pro-Palestine student association.
“When we are a political party, we do not display ourselves with logos that deny the existence of the State of Israel. It’s as simple as that,” said the head of the socialist list in the European elections on TF1.
“We didn’t stutter”
“It contributes to the general confusion of La France insoumise and Jean-Luc Mélenchon on the Israeli question. Since October 7, there has been a problem. We did not stutter to condemn the terrorist attacks of Hamas,” added the head of the PS list for the European elections, in reference to the refusal of the leadership of La France insoumise to qualify the Islamist organization as “terrorist”. .
“We also did not stutter in condemning the crimes committed by Israel in Gaza,” he also clarified.
On the logo on the poster announcing Thursday evening's conference, there appears a territory encompassing Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, on which is affixed the name of the association "Free Palestine".
This logo is visible alongside the photos of Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the controversial Franco-Palestinian activist Rima Hassan, seventh on the list of European rebels, who will give this conference.
Glucksmann does not call for conference ban
Raphaël Glucksmann, however, clarified that he was not in favor of banning this conference, as for example the president (LR) of Hauts-de-France, Xavier Bertrand, may have requested. “I am against conference bans. This is a basic principle for me when there is no disturbance of public order or comments openly reprehensible by law,” explained the outgoing MEP.
According to the latest polls, Raphaël Glucksmann has firmly consolidated his third place in this European election and would even be able to aim for the second place of the head of the majority list, Valérie Hayer.
The Insoumis often criticize Raphaël Glucksmann, accusing him of being too liberal or “going to war” on the Ukrainian issue.
Rima Hassan thus accused him of “despising” the left or of “stuttering very loudly when it comes to naming the crimes committed by Israel”, due to his refusal to describe the situation in Gaza as “genocide”.