Jérôme Guedj accuses Jean-Luc Mélenchon of becoming "an anti-Semitic bastard"

Socialist MP Jérôme Guedj , who broke with La France Insoumise after the Hamas attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023 , accused Jean-Luc Mélenchon, to whom he was close, on Saturday, June 14, of having become "an anti-Semitic bastard."

"When I tell Jean-Luc Mélenchon that it is not possible or desirable to defend the claim of Palestine 'from the sea to the river,' I am defending the historical position of the socialists, notably that of François Mitterrand in the Knesset in 1982, which is that of the two-state solution, the security of Israel and the recognition of the Palestinian state. And at that moment, I become the genocidal Zionist for Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his followers," declared Jérôme Guedj from the podium of the Socialist Party congress in Nancy.

"I have a terrible heartbreak to tell this congress that, for the first time in my life, I had to say of the man I loved deeply that he has become an anti-Semitic bastard, with remarks that are absolutely unbearable for us," added the Essonne MP, to applause from the room.

"Regarding the relationship with LFI, we are still in ambiguity, and this is assumed" by the leadership of the Socialist Party, Jérôme Guedj had denounced to the AFP before his intervention.

One of the issues at stake at the congress is the PS's relationship with Jean-Luc Mélenchon's movement: Olivier Faure's opponents are calling for the strongest possible break with the Insoumis during the next elections.

A strong supporter of the left-wing Nupes alliance after the 2022 presidential election, Jérôme Guedj broke with LFI after the October 7 attacks.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon made very harsh and ambiguous comments about him, calling him "a coward of that human variety that we all know, the informers."

"The interesting thing is to see him fidgeting around the stake where the leash of his memberships holds him," he also declared.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Jérôme Guedj were very close when the former was in the Socialist Party, which he left in 2008.