Socialist Party's second-in-command condemns assaults on public officials and activists, asserting they've been targeted due to their socialist ideologies and Jewish faith.
Headline: Socialist Activists, Some Jewish, Assaulted During Paris May Day Protest, Intra-Left Tensions Emerge
It ain't looking good for the left in Paris these days. Socialist activists and officials were assaulted during the May Day demonstration, and things have been heating up ever since.
Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, the PS's deputy secretary-general, stated that the assaults occurred because "they're socialists and because some of them are Jewish." These incidents reportedly took place at the party's stand along the march route, where black-clad protesters, some carrying anti-fascist flags, pushed and roughed up elected officials and activists. The interior ministry reported four lightly injured socialists – with one person in custody.
On Sud Radio, Mr. Mayer-Rossignol spoke raw and hard, saying, "First, there were insults and threats… Then, cowardly masked individuals dressed in black physically assaulted the socialist activists and officials. Why? Because they're socialists and because some of them happen to be Jewish." The situation could have been a lot worse; as Rouen mayor and number two of the PS, Yannick Jadot, put it, "It could've been way worse. We have friends who ended up in the emergency room, who were injured."
One of these socialist victims, Jérôme Guedj, is Jewish, and he's had a rough week. After being targeted with anti-Semitic insults at a Sunday rally against Islamophobia in the Gard, Guedj had to leave the procession in Paris on May Day. He believes that these incidents reek of anti-Semitism.
The episode has caused quite the stir on the left, with Mayer-Rossignol taking aim at La France Insoumise (LFI) for not showing clear signs of support for Guedj. He also called out the movement for creating a "climate" through a "strategy of fracturing and brutalizing public debate." LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard responded on Twitter, stating that they don't agree with "settling political disagreements with violence."
LFI deputy Aly Diouara reacted harshly, calling out the leadership for instrumentalizing anti-Semitism and dismissing May 1st, traditionally a day for working-class people, in the process. Marine Tondelier, leader of the Ecologists, raised eyebrows when she refused to endorse the assault on Guedj as a case of "far-left" anti-Semitism and suggested that Guedj has a "provocative behavior." Tondelier later apologized for her comments.
Tensions are running high within the PS as well. Guedj, a vocal opponent to the current first secretary, Olivier Faure, accused Faure of not reaching out to him following the May Day and earlier incidents. Several left-wing figures have shown support for Guedj, including Clementine Autain, Lucie Castets, and François Ruffin.
"Socialism isn't about settling disagreements with punches," Ruffin tweeted. "Violence tarnishes our just struggles, making them hateful and rejected. Disagreements exist, yes. But they should never settle with violence."
[Sources 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5]
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- Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, the deputy secretary-general of the PS, claimed that the assaults on socialist activists during the May Day demonstration were due to their political beliefs and some being Jewish.
- During the Paris May Day protest, black-clad protesters reportedly assaulted socialist activists and elected officials at the party's stand along the march route.
- In a statement, Mayer-Rossignol added that these assaults could be linked to both politics and anti-Semitism.
- The incidents of violence and assault from the May Day protest have caused tensions to rise within left-wing politics, including within the PS, with some members criticizing the strategy of La France Insoumise for creating a fractured and brutalized public debate.
- As the episode unfolds, war-and-conflicts, general-news, crime-and-justice, and accidents sections of the news may cover the developments of this ongoing issue in the Parisian political landscape.
