French far-Left chief summoned by police over ‘justifying’ Hamas terror attack on Israel

The leader of far-Left MPs in the French parliament has been summoned by police for questioning over suspected justification of terrorism in comments about the Oct 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.

Mathilde Panot heads the lower house of parliament faction of the France Unbowed (LFI) party, which has been repeatedly accused by opponents of failing to clearly condemn the attack.

The LFI, now France’s strongest political force on the Left, has in turn condemned what it sees as an erosion of free speech and accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Ms Panot said it was the first time in the history of modern France that a head of a parliamentary faction was summoned on such serious grounds.

“I am warning about this serious exploitation of justice aimed at suppressing political expression,” she said on Tuesday.

On Oct 7, the LFI group in parliament described the Hamas attack as “an armed offensive by Palestinian forces” that occurred “in a context of intensification of the Israeli occupation policy” in the Palestinian territories.

The LFI’s firebrand figurehead and former presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, called the summons an “unprecedented event in the history of our democracy” and accused the authorities of “protecting a genocide”.

Last week two conferences by Mr Melenchon on the situation in the Middle East were cancelled in Lille, first at the university and then in a private room.

Hamas fighters and other Palestinian militants poured across the border with Israel on Oct 7 in an unprecedented attack that resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

About 250 people were abducted to Gaza of whom 129 remain in captivity. Israel has said 34 of them are dead.