Anti-Semitism takes centre stage in French election campaigning
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00:00Joining me on the set is our Foreign Editor, Angela Diffley. Hello to you, Angela. It seems
00:04like the far-right national rally has been able to keep its momentum from those European
00:09Parliament elections we saw earlier this month.
00:11Yeah, if you look at those polls, they've all gone up a little bit. And whatever else
00:15you say about this snap election, it appears to be concentrating people's minds. There
00:20has been a massive jump in the number of people who've registered for postal votes or proxy
00:26votes. There is a real interest in voting and the turnout is likely to be high. We're
00:32getting to the end of the first week of a campaign that lasts only two weeks, so things
00:37are fast and furious. I would say that the dominant theme this week after a horrifying
00:43alleged crime against a 12-year-old Jewish girl who was allegedly raped by two 13-year-olds
00:50has been violent crime amongst young people and anti-Semitism. Now, as to how that translates
00:59onto voting intentions, it's not that straightforward. Those who criticise the Rassemblement National
01:06on the far-right say this has been a historically anti-Semitic party. The idea that it is no
01:12longer is false. They pretend to have changed but haven't really. Those who criticise the
01:18far-left, which is the dominant component in the left-wing alliance, say that the far-left
01:26grouping within that have found the flames of anti-Semitism deliberately using the background
01:33of the war in Gaza. Those who criticise the centre, Emmanuel Macron's bloc, say that they
01:40have simply failed to address what is a growing problem and have done nothing in power. So
01:45as to how that translates into voting intentions, and this has been the dominant theme this
01:50week, difficult to say. Also, it should be noted, France does not collect ethnic statistics.
01:57There are no identifiable ethnic votes. And in any case, the Jewish community in France
02:03is estimated to be quite small. So that isn't likely to translate into an identifiable vote.
02:11Another thing to mention is there have been anti-far-right demonstrations in a number
02:16of towns and cities. Quite often on the fringes of those, there has been significant violence
02:21that will only play into the hands of the far-right. So I think they're the sort of
02:26dominant events of this week. And it is already pretty feverish, pretty ugly.
02:31Yeah. And then this Friday, we saw that left-wing alliance, the New Popular Front, unveiling
02:37its economic manifesto here in downtown Paris. Take a listen.
02:42Firstly, repeal of the pension reforms, repeal of unemployment insurance reforms, an increase
02:51in purchasing power, an increase in the minimum wage to 1,600 euros net per month, 10% increase
02:59in housing benefits, which is 25 billion euros by 2024.
03:06And Angela, that press conference coming because this alliance was under pressure to make its
03:11lofty, I guess, campaign pledges seem more realistic. What were the key takeaways for
03:16you?
03:16Yeah, we haven't, should be noted yet, had detailed plans from the other parties. This
03:22is a, as they told us to expect, a pretty classic tax and spend manifesto. We just heard
03:31there some of the things they plan to increase. And of course, the question always is, how
03:36well-costed is this? Will there be enough money? In order to raise money for some of
03:41their plans, which include increasing public sector wages and increasing the minimum wage
03:47and raising the retirement age to match that minimum wage. In order to finance that, they
03:53say they will reintroduce the wealth tax, which was there under Francois Hollande. They
03:58say they will introduce an exit tax for people who are moving their tax residence. And they
04:04say they will find money with, by looking at waste and fraud. It is always the case
04:12when any party presents their manifesto, a lot of the figures are done on estimates.
04:18Some economists say this will not work. The money they expect to raise is simply not enough
04:23to pay for what they expect to do with it. Some economists say this looks pretty fairly
04:28funded. These things are pretty hard to really analyse.