French President Emmanuel Macron denounced “unacceptable” comments made by an Israeli minister who publicly supported far-right candidate Marine Le Pen ahead of French legislative elections.
Israeli media reported that Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli said the National Rally leader would be “great for Israel. ”
A Macron called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to complain about the comments.
“I think Netanyahu and I agree. It is not a non-public matter,” Chilkli quoted.
Le Pen’s stance is based on her positions on Hamas, the International Criminal Court (where Israeli leaders are accused of war crimes) and “the Jewish community’s fight against anti-Semitism,” Chilkli said.
The French president told Netanyahu that Chikli’s comments were “unacceptable” and that he considered them interference, two sources familiar with the phone call told news site Axios.
The call reportedly ended with Netanyahu promising to spare additional statements through his ministers on France’s internal affairs.
Chikli’s habit of an unnamed Israeli official is a “diplomatic bombshell,” according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Le Pen and the National Rally have taken a pro-Israel stance on foreign policy in recent years in an attempt to steer them away from accusations of anti-Semitism, after her father and founder once called Nazi fuel chambers a “detail. “history”.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz tweeted in the runoff that Israel “is not worried about the French elections and respects French democracy. “