What a Left-Wing Foreign Policy Means for France Insoumise
The war in Gaza has again shown the West’s capacity for selective indignation. France Insoumise MP Arnaud Le Gall told Jacobin why it’s time to end the "clash of civilizations" narrative — and adopt an internationalist foreign policy.
French MP for the left-wing party La France Insoumise and member of the NUPES coalition Arnaud Le Gall in Paris, on February 13, 2023. (Ludovic MARIN / AFP via Getty Images)
The war in the Middle East has divided left-wing forces across the West — and France is no exception. Eighteen months ago, the formation of the Nouvelle Union Populaire Écologique et Sociale (NUPES) alliance promised to unite this camp. Yet today, it faces perhaps its worst crisis yet, as latent tensions over NATO, Russia, and Europe–United States relations boil over once more. The center-left Parti Socialiste suspended its participation in NUPES’s parliamentary caucus in late October, joining in with the attacks coming from much of the French political class over La France Insoumise’s (LFI) refusal to term Hamas a “terrorist organization.”
Arnaud Le Gall is a member of the National Assembly and one of France Insoumise’s leading representatives on international politics and foreign policy. He spoke with Jacobin’s Harrison Stetler about the crisis in Gaza, the emergence of a “nonpolar” world order, and the need for a new left-wing foreign policy.
Harrison Stetler
Over twelve thousand Gazans have died as a result of Israel’s bombardment and invasion of the isolated coastal strip, in response to the Hamas-led attack on October 7. At this stage, most Western heads of state are calling for little more than a momentary pause in Israel’s offensive. What has this crisis revealed about the West?
Arnaud Le Gall
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