How Palestine is becoming a fault line in France’s 2027 presidential race

France is preparing for its presidential election in eight months, with analysts telling The New Arab that  Palestine has become an increasingly important domestic litmus test in the battle for political power. 

With President Emmanuel Macron constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term, the 2027 race is more open than it has been in years.  

From left-wing candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, whose pro-Palestine rhetoric has helped bolster his support, to National Rally (RN) figures seeking closer ties with Israel, analysts said Palestine could emerge as not only a major foreign policy issue but also a defining electoral fault line during the campaign. 

The Palestine question has gained greater prominence in French politics following Paris's public response to Israel's genocidal war on Gaza and developments in the occupied West Bank, with Macron's government adopting a more critical stance towards Israeli actions while, at the same time, maintaining diplomatic ties with the country.

This has included France's landmark recognition of Palestine in September 2025 and public condemnation of Israeli officials including far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. 

"Unlike in 2022, Israel-Palestine can no longer be kept at the margins of French presidential debate. It has repeatedly ranked among French voters' top concerns since October 2023, spiking again with each escalation (Gaza, Lebanon, Iran)," Julia Amoura, a researcher at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), told The New Arab. 

She argued that the decision to recognise an independent Palestinian state "has turned the issue into a marker of presidential leadership rather than a peripheral foreign-policy question," and predicted that it was likely to become an even bigger foreign-policy dividing line as the campaign advances.

"France's recognition of Palestine has already forced every major candidate to state a clearer position, and the situation on the ground remains volatile: the October 2025 Gaza ceasefire is fragile, with continuing strikes, a US-brokered disarmament plan rejected by Netanyahu, and UN warnings of a possible return to full-scale hostilities," Amoura said. "Any renewed escalation before April 2027 would likely reopen the debate at moments candidates can't control." 

Melenchon's polling position

This comes as Mélenchon, leader of La France Insoumise (LFI), has emerged as a serious contender for the second round of the presidential election in several polling scenarios.

He could face the far-right frontrunner Marine Le Pen, who is polling at historically high levels and is projected to lead the first round in several potential candidate line-ups next spring.

A recent Harris Interactive–Toluna poll, reported by Politico, put Mélenchon on 16 percent in one scenario, ahead of former prime minister Édouard Philippe on 14 percent and former prime minister Gabriel Attal on 8 percent. Le Pen was well ahead on 35 percent. In scenarios without Attal, Mélenchon and Philippe were tied on 17 percent, underlining that the contest for second place remains open.

Analysts have linked part of Melenchon’s appeal to his outspoken pro-Palestine stance and his effort to mobilise voters around a vision of a “New France”, centred on younger and more diverse voters who may previously have felt alienated from electoral politics.

LFI has also recorded local breakthroughs, including victories in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, and Roubaix in northern France during the 2026 municipal elections.

"Gaza resonates strongly with younger and urban minority voters, which is why LFI centred its 2024 European campaign on it and why RN has worked to reassure French Jewish voters," Amoura told The New Arab.

"Both communities have also been directly affected by a sharp rise in religiously motivated hate. In 2025, France recorded 1,320 antisemitic acts — a 16 percent year-on-year fall, but still a historically high level — while anti-Muslim acts rose 88 percent to 326 incidents."

She added: “For many French voters, this is not an abstract foreign-policy debate but one intertwined with domestic security and communal anxiety, a combination likely to keep the issue emotionally charged throughout the campaign.”

RN's pro-Israel shift

The issue’s growing prominence is also evident in the RN’s attempt to distance itself from its historic associations with racism and antisemitism while adopting a more openly pro-Israel position.

The party’s promotion of the 28-year-old Jordan Bardella has coincided with a broader rapprochement between Israel and parts of the European far right.

French political analyst François Burgat told The New Arab that the history of France’s far right is key to understanding the growing pro-Israel sentiment within parts of the movement today, an issue he believes will also take centre stage in the 2027 presidential election.

He argued that while National Rally founder Jean-Marie Le Pen- a Holocaust denier with a long history of racist and extremist views- “would never have supported Israel because he was genuinely antisemitic”, his daughter and far-right presidential frontrunner Marine Le Pen has increasingly embraced staunch support for Israel.

Burgat said this shift was “not out of sympathy for Jewish people, but out of antipathy toward the Palestinians”.

He argued that Le Pen’s portrayal of Palestinians "as part of the 'decolonised' people" will be used “as the cornerstone of her electoral strategy”, reinforcing and connecting the RN’s longstanding support for restrictive immigration policies and its opposition to Islam with its support for Israel.

"The sympathy the State of Israel garners in France is not directed at the Jewish people as such, but rather at an anti-Muslim people- one with whom those nostalgic for the colonial era easily identify, and one that does not shy away from the extreme violence it is currently deploying in Gaza," Burgat added.

“The question of Palestine will therefore be central to the presidential debate for several reasons, but above all because support for Israel serves as a way to stigmatise France’s Muslim community- a group whose existence and growing assertiveness have come to dominate public discourse.”