Tension is rising a notch almost a month before the European elections. MEP Raphaël Glucksmann, head of the list of the Socialist Party (PS) and his Place publique formation for the June 9 elections, had to leave the May 1 procession organized in Saint-Etienne, very shortly after being there arrived.
The elected official was exfiltrated by his security service after being booed with shouts of “Get out of it”, “Glucksmann get out of there” or even “Palestine will live” by demonstrators who threw paint at him, according to France Bleu Saint-Etienne Loire. The exchange planned after the parade with activists was also canceled.
“These people are not Democrats. We see it in their violence,” declared Mr. Glucksmann shortly after the incident, notably standing alongside PS spokesperson Pierre Jouvet. Referring to the slogans about the conflict in the Gaza Strip, he also assured “that he did not stutter to condemn Hamas” while “fighting for the carnage in Gaza to stop”. “But this does not lead us to slogans that are the negation of Israel,” he clarified.
The candidate claimed to have seen “flags of La France insoumise and Permanent Revolution”, a Trotskyist movement, among the people who insulted him. “80% of tweets at La France insoumise are devoted to Raphaël Glucksmann and the PS-Place publique list. They chose their opponent,” he added.
For Mr. Glucksmann, this action against him is also akin to "a reaction of frustration because the dynamic is with [the PS-Place publique]", evoking the favorable polls which place him at the head of the left-wing candidates, with a increasingly tight gap with the head of the presidential camp list, Valérie Hayer.
Raphaël Glucksmann targets Jean-Luc Mélenchon
Following this incident, the MEP published a series of messages on “Months of hate messages received by the thousands – very often with anti-Semitic connotations – which I have decided to ignore until now, but which reveal a conception of politics and a vision of the world that I reject and that I fight with force ", he continued, believing that it is "time to stop playing with fire like Jean-Luc Melenchon and others do every day."
If he says "totally disapprove of the expulsion of Raphaël Glucksmann", Jean-Luc Mélenchon regrets that it "provide[s] a media diversion against May 1st and a victim role for Glucksmann who takes advantage of it to (. ..) accuse [La France insoumise]”. “The enemy is the extreme right,” he reminds us in a message posted on X.
The European candidate received several supports on the left, including that of the national secretary of the Communist Party, Fabien Roussel, for whom “nothing justifies that Raphaël Glucksmann was excluded from a mobilization this May 1 in Saint-Etienne”. “The social movement gains nothing from practicing ukase and exclusion,” said the deputy from the North in a message on X.
“The excessive conflictualization and the anger stirred up by some are bearing fruit,” criticized the socialist president of the Occitanie region, Carole Delga. This is the society they are offering us, it is not ours. » “I will always stand against any form of violence in politics. Politics can sometimes be a fight in the true sense of the term but it must always be done with respect for the integrity of people", reacted for his part the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, during a trip to Beaugency (Loiret).
Mr. Glucksmann also received “republican support” from the president of the Hauts-de-France region, Xavier Bertrand (Les Républicains), in a message posted on ideas must never give in to intimidation and threats,” said the elected official.
