The supermarket chain Leclerc has apologized to Muslims for stigmatizing them by mentioning that the shortage of sunflower oil was in part caused by certain social groups needing the product to celebrate religious holidays such as Ramadan when that oil is used to fry lamb.
The CEO of Leclerc Michel-Edouard Leclerc rushed out an apology after faced with calls for a boycott of the chain. He apologized for stigmatizing an already disadvantaged population with his remarks and for hurting their feelings.
NUPES (Nouvelle Union Populaire écologiste et sociale) is the alliance of the left made up of Mélenchon’s party, the socialist PS, the communists, and the Greens (EELV) which is contesting the National Assembly elections. In the Charente region, the PS candidate Jerome Lambert was to represent NUPES, but he has been withdrawn for criticizing same-sex marriage and IVF treatment for lesbian couples and single women.
He has been told homophobia will not be tolerated on the left and may now stand as an independent, but the entire incident shows just how far the French left has radicalized.
However, political correctness does not always win out in the end.
Éric Zemmour has been found to be not guilty for his evaluation of French history in World War II — the verdict came after the election but is nevertheless welcome.
After remarking that the Petain government had saved many Jews, he was taken to court for Holocaust denial. He had clear evidence to back up his remarks that indeed 90 percent of French Jews survived the war and that he is himself a Jew.
Unfortunately, French courts are usually lining up behind political correctness. For instance, in 2016 a court refused to sentence a left-wing man for burning a French flag. The unlimited right to demonstrate was seen as more important than national symbols such as the flag. The court ruling even went as far as saying that though burning the flag may not be elegant, it is not something which should be condemned.
