The situation in the Middle East has an impact on the French elections

After Macron’s conservative party lost the European Parliament elections earlier this month to the right-wing National Assembly (RN) party, French politics was thrown into turmoil. 

Emmanuel Macron announced the dissolution of the National Assembly on June 16, and the first round of the French parliamentary elections was held yesterday, and based on the initial results announced by the French Ministry of the Interior, the coalition of left parties “New Popular Front” of France From Le Pen’s party, it is in second place with 29.1% of the votes, which includes the parties “Rebellious France” (LFI), “Socialist Party” (PS), “Communist Party” (PCF), “European Environmental Greens” ( EEVL) and “Radical Party”.

Macron’s centrist coalition consisting of “Renaissance”, “Medum” and “Afqha” parties could only get 21.5% of the votes and settle for the third place.

The second phase of early French parliamentary elections is scheduled to be held next Sunday (July 17) and only candidates who have won more than 12.5% ​​of the votes will advance to the second round.

Therefore, the Young Journalists Club has arranged an interview with Louis Elafi, a French writer and activist, which you can read below.

-In the current situation of the world, as an analyst in the field of French politics, I wanted your opinion on the current situation in this country.

Louis Elafi: Most political figures in France have chosen the easy way, especially by accusing each other to what has been said and heard about Israel and Gaza in the last eight months. This is how, after the main subject of the European elections, the West Asia has become one of the favorite subjects of the parliamentary election candidates. The Arab world, although it is at the center of French discussions, is actually just an excuse for another ideological conflict, this time inside France, and its result can be detrimental to the people.

Commemoration Contest

The current internal debate on the West Asia conflict is firstly related to a historical gap in the level of historical memory, which is caused by colonialism, especially in Algeria. Therefore, an absurd tradition has arisen that involves opposing these two memories or even competing with them. Although these two events are certainly different in terms of context and consequences, they are nevertheless linked by one common thread, as each constitutes an indelible stain on the tradition of French universalism.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is actually nothing but a showcase of France, which is ashamed of its past. Since Victory Day in 1945, when the Algerian War was added to it, the concept of identity was no longer welcome in the political debate. Thus the National Assembly, becoming a zone of petty particularisms where we speak only of “Jews” and “Arabs,” uses its name less and less correctly. Some say they fight anti-Semitism, others say they fight racism. Everyone thinks they are advocating equality and fighting discrimination when they are only talking about completely irreconcilable ethnic groups.

Thus, the West Asia has become an ideal excuse to talk about identity without apparently touching it. In the background, a fundamental debate that the French have been putting off for too long: the very definition of who they are. Are we still cosmopolitan? Does our secularism still work? Does the statement of 1789 still have meaning? Are we racist? Are you anti-Semitic? Are we afraid of the other? This election forces us into an introspection that is long overdue.

False excuses >

But beyond these questions, we ourselves as French, it is these other peoples who may suffer from our possible answers because although the Arab world, both Muslim, Jewish and Christian, is at the center of French discussions, France has nothing to do with it. will not do There are many who drink from the same cup of humiliation by supporting those who destroy all hopes in the region.

The far right everywhere in the world has always been careful not to name some of their allies who are more troublesome to their voters. A part of the extreme left also made the same choice, but assuming that it can manage the situation, it refused to make some key and important decisions in the international arena, such as removing Hamas as a terrorist group, and thus showed a certain satisfaction. This is, for example, the case of Emmanuel Macron, whose relations with Iran have remained ambiguous to this day, just like the relations he informally maintains with his Lebanese counterpart – for example, by supporting Suleiman Farnjieh in the presidential election, a few years after promising new political Likewise for the conflict in Gaza, where the presidential camp could at the same time declare its unconditional support through the voice of Yael Brown, the speaker of the National Assembly, and officially call for an end to the war.

Isn’t there a kind of selfishness in which only privileged people can allow themselves to use the misfortune of others to fix their election campaigns without any consequences for these others? The ones our politicians talk about don’t necessarily have that chance. Some say that in the West Asia everything is about identity. Are they completely wrong? Probably not. However, it is clear that the French can sometimes fall into this trap. The last eight months have proven this. The difference lies in the fact that they can sit back and discuss their values ​​while leaning back in the armchair that a real democracy offers them, but they prefer to play the show differently.

In France, it is common to consider the West Asia as complex and full of inflammatory identities, but now there is no longer a lesson to be taught in this field, because France itself today is full of lessons that may not be repeated for many and this time Not France for history to learn from them.

Louis Al-Yafi is a French-Lebanese lawyer, columnist, and one of his works is “A Letter to My Generation: Youth Facing Extremism”, which was published in 2002.