Raphaël Glucksmann expelled from a demonstration, the left is torn apart over May 1st

6 months ago 24

The Socialist Party and Place publique (S&D) lead candidate for the European elections, Raphaël Glucksmann, was chased out of a procession marching in Saint-Etienne for Labour Day on Wednesday (May 1).

In a sign that the French left is tearing itself apart ahead of the European elections, Glucksmann had to be removed from the procession by his security service amid booing and shouts of “Glucksmann get out” and “Palestine will live”. The MEP in turn accuses the leaders of far-left La France Insoumise (LFI) of slander.

According to France Bleu Saint-Etienne Loire, some of the protesters carried Palestinian flags and threw paint at him. Glucksmann recently denounced the “carnage”, “mass crimes” and blockade of the Gaza Strip, but refused to speak of “genocide”, like other left-wing leaders. He instead claimed that the attacks “are the result of months of hatred and slander skilfully orchestrated by the Insoumis”, some of which anti-Semitic in nature.

Glucksmann believes the attacks are borne out “of frustration, because the momentum is with [the PS-Place publique]”. The Socialist list is leading on the political left, and is closing in on Macron’s Renaissance (Renew) with 14% of vote share in the latest Ipsos poll of 29 April, against 17% for Renaissance.

Fractures on the left

In a message posted on Facebook, the section of the Jeunes Communistes de la Loire pointed out that “Raphaël Glucksmann wanted to invite himself into the procession on the occasion of the European elections”, before explaining that “the enemies of our class will never be welcome by our side!”.

The national secretary of the Communist Party (PCF, Gauche), Fabien Roussel, was keen to lend his support to the Socialist candidate, as was the head of the list for the greens (Les Verts/ALE), Marie Toussaint, who “firmly condemns the actions of a handful of extremists”.

LFI’s main leaders were also quick to condemn the violence in Saint-Étienne. The party’s head of list, Manon Aubry, pointed out that in a democracy “everyone has the right to demonstrate”. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the movement’s leader, stressed that “all those who want to pledge allegiance to the workers’ struggle for their rights have their place on May 1st”.

But the France insoumise leader also continued his verbal joust with Raphaël Glucksmann on social networks, explaining that the expulsion of the Socialist candidate from the Stéphanois procession was a “media diversion” against May 1st and that it gave the latter a position of “victim”.

On the Socialist Party side, movement spokeswoman Chloé Ridel denounced “the dumbest ‘left’ in the world”, while the fight should be against “Macron, Bardella and Zemmour, whose project crushes those who only have their work to live on”.

As for the Bardella, he was at a campaign launch event in Perpignan, in the south of France.