San Francisco Frontiers - Uproar in France over hard left's image of right-wing star anchor

The France Unbowed (LFI) party published the image last week of Cyril Hanouna, one of the most influential stars of right-wing media in France, as part of a campaign calling on people to turn out for nationwide anti-racism protests on March 22.

It pictured Hanouna, who was born into a Jewish family that had immigrated to France from Tunisia, frowning with his face creased up in a grimace against a black background.

Critics immediately accused the LFI of imitating the anti-Semitic tropes of the Third Reich. The controversy only intensified when the party acknowledged the image had been made using Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Key LFI figures including its coordinator Manuel Bompard and chief of its parliamentary party Mathilde Panot admitted publishing the image was a "mistake" and it was withdrawn.

But this has so far failed to quell the controversy.

Socialist leader Olivier Faure, whose party successfully entered into a pact with the LFI in last year's legislative elections, said that the poster was "unacceptable" and called for an apology.

The poster had "all the anti-Semitic references of the 1930s", he told BFMTV on Tuesday.

"It's unacceptable. And what is even more intolerable is that they withdrew this poster and refused to apologise," he added.

Several internet users have drawn parallels between the image and the publicity poster for notoriously anti-Semitic 1940 Nazi propaganda film "Der Ewige Jude" ("The Eternal Jew").

Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Sunday the poster used "the most nauseating anti-Semitic tropes".

He said the LFI had used AI to distribute a "deepfake" warning that doing so without specifying that it was AI-generated was "punishable by a 15,000 euro fine and one year's imprisonment".

- 'Shut up!' -

The LFI's highest profile figure, the three-time presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, has meanwhile accused right-wing media of exploiting the issue in a defiant position that has troubled even his own ranks.

Interviewed on Sunday by the France 3 television channel, Melenchon angrily lashed out at an interviewer who asked him if the party had made a mistake with the image.

"Why are you asking me this question? Who gives you the right? Who are you? Are you accusing me? Then shut up!" he raged.

Pressed over whether it was anti-Semitism, he became even more enraged.

"Why would it be anti-Semitism? Enough! Enough now!" he thundered just as the programme ended.

According to messages on an internal WhatsApp group, seen and authenticated by AFP, several LFI lawmakers have expressed exasperation with the situation, with one asking: "Is there a way to avoid a shitstorm with every image we produce?"

The LFI and Melenchon, who came third in 2022 presidential elections and whose party makes up the biggest left-wing faction in parliament, has faced accusations of failing to properly condemn attacks on October 7, 2023 by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel.

Hanouna has become a household name in France for outspoken shows that often focus on far-right talking points around security and immigration.

Seen as close to the right-wing billionaire Vincent Bollore, Hanouna was long a presenter on the C8 channel before it lost its frequency earlier this year.

But his hit talk show is still being broadcast on web-based television and he presents daily on Europe 1 radio.

"It's a caricature that takes us back to the darkest hours... And for me, there's no doubt it was done deliberately," Hanouna said on Europe 1 last week.

His lawyer Stephane Hasbanian has said that LFI plans to file a complaint while Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said the posters aimed to put "targets on the back" of journalists.

U.Campbell--SFF