Jean-Luc Melenchon, a far-left politician from France blamed what he called “networks of influence from Likud” for the loss suffered by Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party in Britain’s election last week.
Melenchon, who is often described as Corbyn’s counterpart in France, made the comment in a post on his Facebook page on Friday, according to JTA.
“Instead of attacking” these networks and the chief rabbi of Britain, who said in a newspaper op-ed that Corbyn was “complicit in prejudice” against Jews, Corbyn “kept apologizing, giving the accusation play,” wrote Melenchon, who won 19 percent of the 2017 French presidential elections.
Labour received 202 seats in Parliament out of 650, its worst showing since 1935 and a loss of 60 seats from the 2017 election. Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the Conservative Party won a comfortable majority with 365 seats — up by 48 seats.
Following the defeat, Corbyn announced his resignation and blamed hostile media and his refusal to commit to Brexit.
Melenchon was adamant he would not back down, as he perceived Corbyn did.
“I’ll never cede,” he wrote, according to JTA. “Never a point-system retirement, a German neoliberal Europe, green capitalism or kneeling before arrogant dictates by the sectarians of the CRIF.”
CRIF, the umbrella Jewish group in France, in a statement Monday called Melenchon’s rhetoric “reminiscent” of anti-Jewish propaganda by French Nazi collaborators.
Melenchon has been accused of anti-Semitic rhetoric in the past. He supports a blanket boycott of Israel and has said that allowing Israel to keep even some Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria “is like letting bank robbers keep the money.”
In 2014, he called French Jews “an aggressive community preaching to the rest of the nation.”
Just last month the far-left leader accused French Jews of inciting to assault him and promoting “violent sectarianism” that he said doesn’t occur among Muslims.