Election Day In France: Implications for FrenchJewry
On Sunday, the French people will choose their next President. The preliminary vote two weeks ago revealed a dramatic shift to thefar-right.
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• Almost a third of the 11 million French voters cast ballots for parties with a history and leadership that include anti-Semites, anti-Zionists orboth.
• The extreme far-right National Front Party, led by Marine Le Pen, daughter of National Front founder, Holocaust revisionist and anti-Semite Jean-Marie Le Pen,(pictured together, top right) had its best national showing ever.
• For the Jewish community there is deep concern that a victory of the leading candidate, Socialist Francois Hollande (pictured bottom, right) overPresident Sarkozy, (pictured middle right, receiving the Center's Tolerance Award) will swing France closer to Arab countries at the expense ofFrench-Israel relations.
• In addition, there is deep concern over the Socialist Party's attitude vis-a-vis anti-Semitism. In the past, while Socialists have been consistently vocal intheir criticisms of Israel, there has been a virtual silence after many anti-Semitic attacks targeting French Jews.
With the images of the massacre in Toulouse still fresh in their collective consciousness, and with the upcoming election, a recent poll shows many French Jewsconsidering leaving France, many to Israel.
“If a third of 11 million votes for radicals in the first round were a wake-up call, the political mortgages with those elements set for the second round may bethe catalyst for emigration,” writes Dr. Shimon Samuels, SWC Paris-based International Relations Director, (pictured with Rabbi Cooper and Nicolas Sarkozy) who ismonitoring the elections for the Wiesenthal Center.
These are troubling times. The outcome of the French elections could have serious repercussions for Jews living in France, Jews around the world, and for the Stateof Israel.
