By having the DJ Barbara Butch’s Grenoble concert interrupted on Saturday, the La France Insoumise movement led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon rekindles criticism of its stance on anti-Semitism.
The harassment of Barbara Butch is no longer the preserve of the reactionary lobby. Two years after the online hate wave that followed her participation in the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, the lesbian DJ is now targeted by a portion of the radical left. This Saturday, July 18, activists led by an elected member of La France insoumise (LFI) interrupted her performance in Grenoble. The reason: the signing by the Jewish artist, last March, of a tribune in support of the Yadan bill against new forms of anti-Semitism. A text vigorously opposed by LFI before being withdrawn on April 16.
Three months after the withdrawal of the bill, Barbara Butch was performing around 10:20 p.m. as part of the Cabaret Frappé festival, organized for 25 years by the capital of Isère, when pro-Palestinian militants disrupted the concert. “There were about 150 militants in front of the stage who had banners, who hissed, insulted,” testified to the Agence France-Presse (AFP) a festival programming official. After about twenty minutes, the town hall decided to suspend the concert “in order to guarantee the safety of the public, the teams and all the people present”.
“Peaceful”, the demonstration?
At the origin of this action was a certain Allan Brunon, an LFI elected official in the Grenoble city hall. He had become known to the general public in 2024 for a filmed altercation, between the two rounds of the municipal elections, where one can hear him insulting an individual with the “dirty faggot” remark. After the video was published on social networks, the official said he “regretted the use of a homophobic insult”. Allan Brunon, however, stands by the confrontation with Barbara Butch: “We are extremely proud to have participated in this peaceful demonstration”, he told AFP.
The concert by artist Barbara Butch at the Cabaret Frappé festival in Grenoble lasted only 20 minutes pic.twitter.com/Ar6PWouyC2
— ICI Isère (@ici_isere) July 18, 2026
“Peaceful”, the qualification is debated: the municipality denounces rather “an intolerable aggression in the middle of a show”, reporting “glass bottles being thrown” and other projectiles “deliberately aimed at the stage”. Corroborating this version by citing notably the police report, a Mediapart investigation recounts “the story of a boycott that degenerated”. “The events that occurred last night are of extreme gravity”, declared Sunday the left-wing mayor of Grenoble, Laurence Ruffin, announcing: “The City of Grenoble will file a complaint so that light is shed on these facts and so that their authors are held accountable before the courts.”
Barbara Butch targeted by anti-Semitism
On franceinfo’s microphone this Monday morning, Manuel Bompard, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s right-hand man, was asked about this action targeting an artist whom he himself recalled having endured in 2024 “a cyberharassment campaign with fatphobic and homophobic insults”. But, he said, “it changes nothing to the fact that she chose to take a political position and I can understand that this political position could generate a protest.”
And too bad if, in the meantime, Barbara Butch has already explained herself on the subject. “Israeli politics does not concern me (…), obviously I am against this government” stated in a video posted at the end of April on Instagram, where she explained: “I signed a tribune to denounce anti-Semitism in France, which I suffer daily since my childhood and which was even stronger after the Olympics. (…) There are things to criticize about this law but I am not a lawyer or political scientist; my job is to make people dance.”
On a flyer distributed by the Grenoble section of LFI, which L’Opinion got hold of, the artist is depicted before a LGBT flag stamped with a Star of David, all bloodied. Facing the mayor of Grenoble’s refusal to yield to pressure, the boycott appeal proclaims: “We have therefore no other option than to raise awareness at the festival entrance, so that people who come just to listen to music do not find themselves, without knowing it, supporting an artist complicit in genocide.”
Info @lopinion_fr | Barbara Butch splattered with blood, a LGBT flag bearing a Star of David… Here is the flyer distributed by the local LFI group in Grenoble to mobilize its militants against the DJ’s concert, presented as a ‘complice of genocide’… pic.twitter.com/zMhqgN8j43
— Antoine Oberdorff (@A_Oberdorff) July 20, 2026
The La France Insoumise shocks the left
Outside LFI, this relentless pressure on Barbara Butch is widely shocking to the left. First, because of the method used. “Such sectarianism, such a challenge to the freedom of creation and distribution, leads us to a dead end. They send signals that are contrary, both to the principles we defend and to the enemies we have”, criticized MP Clémentine Autain, joined by the mayor of Paris’s 11th arrondissement, David Belliard: “Freedom to create and disseminate is exactly what is attacked by the reactionaries. Let us not yield to the same impasse on the left!”
“These methods do not help the Palestinians at all and harm sincere activists. Solidarity with Barbara Butch”, reacted on X the Socialist Party’s first secretary, Olivier Faure, echoing his rival Boris Vallaud, deputy for Landes: “This is not politics, this is an assault. None of this serves the Palestinian cause. None of this has to do with the left.” Also supported by Paris mayor Emmanuel Grégoire, who wrote: “Interrupting an artist’s performance is not my conception of democracy.” And Bernard Cazeneuve, former prime minister under François Hollande, zinged on BFMTV: “This left is not the left; it is a machine for excommunication, for imposing violence at the heart of political debate, and all the heirs of Léon Blum and the republican left should find within themselves the strength to say no to those who behave this way.”
“No fight can justify anti-Semitism.”
Beyond political disagreement and the methods used, a question looms: why such relentless hostility toward this artist, especially over a law that has since been abandoned? Even Sandrine Rousseau, a green politician close to LFI, posted on Instagram a message of support reminding that “Barbara Butch does not represent Israel,” that she “has publicly expressed her opposition to Netanyahu’s government” and that “many other personalities signed this petition [for the Yadan law] without suffering the same treatment.” Marine Tondelier, national secretary of the Ecologists, adds: “These violent actions have nothing to do with a simple boycott. They are practices we should leave to the far right. (…) This is not how we will win over a majority of the population to trust us.” The party of Raphaël Glucksmann, which itself faced in March a controversial remark by Jean-Luc Mélenchon about the pronunciation of his surname, also shows solidarity with Barbara Butch: “No fight can justify anti-Semitism. Place publique offers her unwavering support.” And the mayor of Saint-Ouen, Karim Bouamrane, drives the point home: “Anti-Semitism does not change its nature depending on the political camp.”
The artist announced the filing of several complaints, including one for “incitement to hatred and violence” targeting notably La France Insoumise and some of its Grenoble representatives. “What happened that night was vile, Barbara Butch testified in an interview with Libération. People have the right to be angry, to hand out flyers, to come with flags, but shouting at me to the point that the music could no longer be heard was of unbelievable violence. How can one say, when one disagrees with someone, that by throwing a bottle shard at the person they will understand?” Barbara Butch’s lawyer, Maître Audrey Msellati, specifies that the legal action also concerns a far-right website as well as the essayist Alain Soral. The Grenoble prosecutor’s office has already opened an investigation for “deliberate obstruction of freedoms.”
[Update, July 23] Added reaction from Marine Tondelier, Barbara Butch’s complaint, and the investigation opened by the Grenoble prosecutor’s office.
