PARIS (AP) — Days ahead of France’s crucial parliamentary elections, renowned Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld is sticking to his advice that if voters are faced with a duel between Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally and a far-left competitor, they should choose the far right.
The advice from Klarsfeld, an 88-year-old Jewish historian who has dedicated his life to bringing fugitive Nazis to justice, goes against many other Jewish leaders and intellectuals in France who see fighting the National Rally as a top priority in Sunday’s runoff vote.
But Klarsfeld told The Associated Press in an interview at his Paris apartment that the far-left France Unbowed party has militant pro-Palestinian supporters and “antisemitic overtones,” while Le Pen’s party supports Israel and Jewish people.
“Marine Le Pen is the head of a party which supports Israel and supports the Jews,” Klarsfeld said in the interview Tuesday. “So we gave this advice to those who will be faced with this runoff between the far left and what used to be the far right, which for us is now a populist party, to vote for the right,” he said.