The French left-wing alliance in the parliament NUPES is collapsing over disagreements on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, with the Socialist Party (PS) deciding to suspend their involvement in it and the Greens following suit in the decision.
Both parties accused left party France Unbowed (LFI), that with 74 MPs is the biggest party in the alliance, of having an ambiguous stance over the Middle Eastern crisis. Both parties didn’t like that LFI and its leadership refused to call the assault on October 7 made by Hamas as a terrorist attack. The party is also facing criticism by the government, with Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin calling for a criminal investigation of LFI lawmaker Daniele Obono due to her depiction of Hamas as a “resistance” movement.
The position of LFI brought Greens presidential candidate Yannick Jadot to declare that “we have to suspend our ties with LFI so long as they haven’t strongly clarified their basic values.”
On Wednesday morning, LFI leader Jean-Luc Melenchon wrote a tweet that stated that “a personal issue with me about Israel [and] Palestine” is making the Socialist Party and its leader Olivier Faure breaking the alliance. Melenchon later deleted the tweet.
The NUPES alliance was already facing tensions, with the fourth party of the alliance, the Communist Party, already considering the creation of an alternative for left parties in the French Parliament.
