In a meeting this Thursday in Lyon as part of the municipal elections, the rebellious leader once again targeted the press, whose relations have soured since the death of Quentin Deranque. In the meeting on Thursday evening in Lyon for the municipal elections, Jean-Luc Mélenchon once again criticized the press, with whom the relations of the Unsubmissive have worsened since the murder of Quentin Deranque, the nationalist student lynched to death two weeks ago in the capital of the Gauls. This was an opportunity for the rebellious leader, who came to support the head of the LFI list, Anaïs Belouassa-Cherifi, to address the perceived media silence surrounding the Epstein case.
Seven years after his death, the American pedocriminal remains at the center of a worldwide scandal with multiple ramifications, fueled by his ties to various political, economic and cultural personalities – which continues to generate theories and speculations, including in France. To the point where the rebellious MPs have pleaded for the creation of a transpartisan “parliamentary investigating commission” on this matter, a request rejected by the president of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet.
Referring to the investigative work of France Info journalists in legal matters, Jean-Luc Mélenchon lamented the supposed lack of respect for the “secrecy of investigation.” “Unless it’s the Epstein case,” he quickly added, emphasizing the end of the financier’s surname. “Oh… I meant Epstine, sorry, it sounds more Russian, Epstine. So now you will say Epstine instead of Epstein, Frankenstin instead of Frankenstein! Well, everyone understands what to do. You can all make progress,” quipped the triple presidential candidate. While this sequence may seem commonplace within the rebellious framework – following the same line of reproaches that LFI Eurodeputy Rima Hassan had addressed to a journalist from Le Parisien for mentioning the Russian track in the case to obscure, according to her, the Mossad track, the Israeli intelligence service – it quickly sparked a backlash on social media.
Explanation. In France, insisting on the ending “ein” of a surname, in the Yiddish way (a historically spoken Germanic language by Ashkenazi Jews from Central and Eastern Europe), “often refers to the Judaism of a person,” specified journalist and French literature specialist Marianna Perebenesiuk. A far from insignificant detail in this case, as Jeffrey Epstein was Jewish. Consequently, several political and civil society figures have accused Jean-Luc Mélenchon of making a remark with antisemitic overtones.
Starting with the president of the Crif (Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions), Yonathan Arfi: “Despite what J.-L. Mélenchon says, a 5th grader knows that in English, ‘Epstein’ is pronounced ‘Epstine.’ Journalists are simply pronouncing an American name… in an American way. To see manipulation with antisemitic overtones in this pronunciation is a sign of a delirious conspiracy theorist. Whichever way you pronounce it, Mélenchon remains synonymous with political indignity,” he lashed out.
This incident involving Jean-Luc Mélenchon is likely to give ammunition to the detractors of the leading figure of the Unsubmissive, who accuse him of stoking antisemitism since the terrorist attacks of October 7th. Starting from that date, in the face of Israeli retaliation in Gaza, he made the Palestinian cause the main focus of his political strategy, seeing it as a lever to mobilize youth and working-class neighborhoods, two electorates he seeks to win over to succeed.
