The leader of France’s far-left La France Insoumise party accused French ministers of “following the orders” of the country’s Jewish organization.
During a conference on Thursday, Jean-Luc Mélenchon launched a highly polemical attack against the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF) and its president Yonathan Arfi.
“The CRIF, well, it’s basically some far-right machine where every year all the ministers line up to go eat there. They pay 800 euros to go eat there, but taxes reimburse 60 percent of it, so it works out fine. So they all go there, and they follow orders,” he said.
Here, Mélenchon was referring to the annual CRIF dinner, a political event in France where senior politicians traditionally attend and speak. He implied that Jewish organizations secretly control politicians or exercise political influence behind the scenes.
Mélenchon’s comments on Thursday were made in response to a specific incident involving the banning of a planned ‘anti-racism’ concert organized by his party La France Insoumise (LFI).
Arfi had publicly criticized the event on June 16, questioning whether it was “appropriate for democracy,” and on June 17, the Paris police prefect Patrice Faure signed Order No. 2026-00750 banning the concert. Authorities cited possible public disorder and concerns over certain invited artists.
Melenchon’s comments were then made on June 18.
Subsequently, however, on June 19, the Paris Administrative Court suspended the ban after LFI appealed, allowing the concert to go ahead after all on June 21.
Mélenchon’s comments about CRIF sparked significant controversy.
‘Mélenchon is reviving an antisemitic trope’
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said, “When Jean-Luc Mélenchon suggests that the government is ‘taking orders’ from CRIF, he is not merely engaging in political controversy: he is reviving an antisemitic trope based on the fantasy of secret Jewish influence over those in power.”
“These insinuations, which fuel conspiracy thinking, are unworthy of a political leader,” he continued. “They must be called out for what they are.”
Arfi himself said that “at LFI, the antisemitic fantasy machine is running at full throttle.”
“According to Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the Paris police prefect does not make his decisions based on the laws and the interests of the French people but based on… a tweet from the Crif,” he said.
He added that the idea that Jews pull the strings of power is “one of the most worn-out antisemitic prejudices.”
Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, the director of American Jewish Committee Europe, said, “Designating a Jewish organization as the hidden power that commands the state is antisemitism in its most blatant form: conspiracy, hidden strings, shadow.”
“LFI is a passionately antisemitic party,” she added.
“LFI is a passionately antisemitic party.”
