Two LFI candidates for the legislative elections in Paris, Danièle Obono and Danielle Simonnet, were vilified by their competitors and the Licra on Saturday for having appeared with Jeremy Corbyn, ex-boss of the British Labor Party excluded from his parliamentary group for laxity in the face of the anti-Semitism. Jeremy Corbyn tweeted a campaign photo in Paris where he came to support outgoing MP Danièle Obono (17th constituency) and Paris councilor Danielle Simonnet (15th constituency), in the running with the left-wing Nupes alliance.
Excellent to visit Paris and campaign alongside @Simonnet2 in the 20th arrondissement with @Deputee_Obono and dozens of enthusiastic @NUPES_2022_ activists standing up for economic, climate and social justice across France this month. Solidarity, unity, victory! pic.twitter.com/UnYSndTtRu
Danielle Simonnet relayed the tweet and expressed in another message on Friday her “emotion” and her “pride” to receive Jeremy Corbyn. His socialist rival and outgoing MP Lamia El Aaraje immediately attacked the Insoumise: “The masks are falling: inviting and displaying the support of Jeremy Corbyn, dismissed from the Labor Party and the group for complacency with anti-Semitism in England, after 1,000 complaints recorded by this party, is a shame that Danielle Simonnet is proud of,” she tweeted.
Socialist executives took up this criticism, in the midst of the war of the lefts in this 20th arrondissement of Paris, where Lamia El Aaraje maintained his candidacy with the endorsement of the PS despite the agreement on the left behind Jean-Luc Mélenchon. The International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra) also lambasted the photo and “the pride” of Danielle Simonnet, accusing Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labor Party from September 2015 to April 2020, of having “covered anti-Semitism, which Jeremy Corbyn defends himself against.
Labor had been the subject of an investigation by an independent body, the Equality and Human Rights Committee (EHRC), which concluded at the end of October 2020 that there had been “inexcusable” failures resulting from a “lack of willingness to tackle anti-Semitism” within the party. Jeremy Corbyn, 73, was suspended from the party for a time before announcing his reinstatement after a favorable ruling by the party’s Dispute Committee. But Labor expelled him from the parliamentary group in November 2020.
