The France Unbowed has been delighted and will finally participate in the parliamentary group meeting organized by the government to prepare the draft law against anti-Semitism, the leader of the Unbowed members of Parliament, Mathilde Panot, confirmed on Sunday. “We will go because we have things to say,” she declared on “Political Questions” on France Inter, franceinfo TV, and Le Monde. But “if the aim is to pass a Yadan law bis, that is, to equate criticism of the Israeli government with anti-Semitism, then we will fight with all our might against this law,” she added.
The bill proposed by Caroline Yadan to combat “renewed forms of anti-Semitism,” which had sparked criticism, was withdrawn in mid-April by the Renaissance MPs. After this withdrawal, Minister Aurore Bergé, in charge of fighting discrimination, invited the presidents of parliamentary groups to a meeting on Tuesday to work on a future bill, this time at the government’s initiative and not from the parliamentarians. Aurore Bergé had stated on France 3 that all parties had responded except France Unbowed, which “refuses to come.” This “does not surprise anyone today in our country given LFI’s electoral strategy.”
An introduction before the hoped-for summer break Following the announcement of the bill, Mathilde Panot had initially stated that LFI would not participate. She expressed concern on Sunday about the government’s text. “For example, what happens to a person – including some Palestinians who dream of it – who calls for a single bi-national state, with equal rights between Israeli citizens and Palestinian citizens? Will you call for the destruction of Israel? Will sanctions then be taken?” she asked.
For her part, Aurore Bergé reiterated that it would be “a new law,” not solely based on Caroline Yadan’s parliamentary work. She hopes to present the text before the summer break in a Cabinet meeting and have it adopted in the Senate on first reading before the parliamentary activities are suspended for the summer.
