France’s leading left-wing politician, Jean-Luc Melenchon, calls Labour antisemitism claims “baseless” and suggests “Likud networks” were behind Jeremy Corbyn’s election defeat
France’s leading left-wing politician, Jean-Luc Melenchon, has weighed in on the UK’s general election, claiming that one of the reasons that Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn lost the election was “baseless accusations of antisemitism” and “the various influence networks of the Likud”, Israel’s ruling party.
Mr Melenchon published his analysis in French on Facebook, where it caused a firestorm. He wrote: “Corbyn spent his time being insulted and stabbed in the back by a handful of Blairite MPs. Instead of fighting back, he restrained himself. He had to face the crude and baseless accusation of antisemitism levelled by the Chief Rabbi of England and the various influence networks of the Likud (the far-right party of Netanyahu in Israel). Instead of fighting back, he spent his time apologising and giving assurances. In both cases he showed a weakness which worried the public.”
Mr Melenchon’s ignorant and outrageous assertions come after Campaign Against Antisemitism warned that Jews may be made a scapegoat for Mr Corbyn’s election defeat.
Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.