French party attacked for running Palestinian candidate in EU elections

The left-wing party La France Insoumise (LFI) has come under attack from politicians and in the media after nominating French-Palestinian rights lawyer Rima Hassan for the upcoming European Parliament elections.

Hassan, 31, who was born as a Palestinian refugee in Syria, has been heavily criticised by centre-right and far-right aligned public figures and politicians over her support for Gaza.

On 6 March, LFI published a tentative list of candidates for the upcoming EP elections, including Hassan who ranked 7th on the list, meaning she is likely to win a seat in parliament if her party wins more than five per cent of votes.

Hassan co-founded the Action France Palestine group and the Observatory of Refugee Camps, a non-profit that monitors living and legal conditions in refugee camps.

The head of the far-right National Rally Party, Jordan Bardella, who also heads the party’s list in the EP election, attacked Hassan’s candidacy and described her as a “Hamas supporter”. He claimed that Hassan’s nomination reflects “the left’s readiness for all concessions and all extremism.”

The ruling Renaissance Party of President Emmanuel Macron accused LFI of trying to appeal to “anti-semitic voters” by choosing an activist of Palestinian origins.

“She symbolises the ideas promoted by Hamas,” Sylvain Maillard of the Renaissance Party told French TV channel CNews on Friday.

MEP for the Renaissance Party, Nathalie Loiseau, claimed that LFI was “toying with what they believe to be a French-Muslim electorate.”

Jean-Marc Morandini, a CNews TV presenter, described Hassan as a candidate with a “worrying profile”.

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