(Quebec) Solidarity MP Ruba Ghazal is “interfering” in French politics, accuses the former National Rally (RN) alternate candidate for North America, Aurélien Nambride, for the 2024 legislative elections.
“The way Ruba Ghazal actively participated in the Popular Front campaign in North America, I can say that it is a form of interference,” Mr. Nambride said in an interview with The Canadian Press last week, before the first round.
“I find it a great shame that a foreign politician is campaigning for French politics, for French people living abroad, for French national issues,” he added.
Last week, Solidarity MP Ruba Ghazal wrote on the social network X that she would be at the Mont-Royal metro station to distribute leaflets from the New Popular Front (NFP), a coalition of left-wing parties, “in order to encourage the French of Quebec to block the road to the extreme right.”
An initiative that did not please the substitute candidate defeated in the first round. “I don’t really like interference, especially active interference. The RN is patriotism and above all sovereignty,” he said.
National Rally is the new name of the National Front, a party founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen in 1972. Described as far-right, the political party has for several years sought to “de-demonize” itself, particularly with the arrival of Marine Le Pen – the founder’s daughter – at its head in 2011.
Even though Aurélien Nambride denies the far-right label that is attached to his party, Québec solidaire (QS) does not hesitate to use it. In addition to Ruba Ghazal, Solidaire MPs Sol Zanetti and Etienne Grandmont also called last week to vote for the French left on social networks in order to block the far right.
In the first round of the French legislative elections on Sunday, the RN finished first ahead of the NFP and the Ensemble party of President Emmanuel Macron.
For the North America constituency, the second round duel pits the NFP candidate, Oussama Laraichi (the one who received Ruba Ghazal’s support) against Roland Lescure who is from the president’s party. The RN candidate for this constituency, Jennifer Adam, and her substitute, Aurélien Nambride, came in third place. The second round will take place on July 7.
In the French political system, the substitute candidate is the one who will replace the elected candidate if he or she can no longer perform his or her duties.
“Equally unacceptable”
Ruba Ghazal has also been criticized by Quebec politicians. “Not sure, dear colleague, that this foreign interference on your part is well advised,” wrote the Minister for the Fight against Racism, Christopher Skeete, on X, last week.
At a press conference last Thursday, Conservative leader Éric Duhaime said he was “uneasy with the fact that a member of parliament paid by Quebec taxpayers is in the Montreal metro distributing leaflets for a candidate in an election from a foreign country.”
“By definition, it is interference. You can’t necessarily compare it to Chinese interference in the federal election. But it is still a form of interference and it is just as unacceptable,” he added.
QS defended itself against interference by citing Canadian and French law.
“What Ruba did by giving her support and distributing leaflets is therefore not foreign interference, since she acted on her own initiative and not at the request of a foreign power. […] and it did not act to share false or inaccurate information or to harm fundamental French interests. This is only a matter of international solidarity and free expression in a democracy,” it says.
“These are personal initiatives, but the party fully supports them. The far right is on the verge of power and it is normal and healthy for the French community of Quebec to mobilize. So much the better if supportive MPs speak out alongside them,” adds QS.
On June 9, French President Emmanuel Macron took everyone by surprise by announcing the call for early legislative elections, following disappointing results for his party in the European elections against the National Rally.
The French National Assembly has 577 elected members and a party must elect 289 to have an absolute majority.