Jean-Luc Mélenchon is not a dummy. He is never going to say something completely illegal. He is an immensely intelligent man (yes, really). He uses dogwhisles. And you only notice those dogwhisles if you are carefully pay attention

I'll give you a few examples.

The Omar Mosque

French police raided the Mosque Omar in the 11th district of Paris

Immediatly, Melenchon posted this on social media:

French police breaking into a mosque. Humiliating muslims. Is this what you want? How can you not hate a State doing this?

Here is the thing. Everyone in French intelligence heard about the Omar Mosque in the 11th district of Paris. And never in a good way.

This is one of the most extremist mosque in France:

In fact, the Omar Mosque had this extremism reputation for decades :

Mélenchon doesn't give a fuck. He made a tweet that spread like wildfire about the evil police humiliating ordinary muslims. Not honest, but creating resentment works. That's a way to gain votes.

He publically accused journalist Ruth El Krief of insulting Islam/Muslims:

You can criticize Ruth El Krief on a lot of things. And that's fine. But she never insulted Islam/Muslims. Never. NEVER. Jean-Luc Mélenchon knows that.

He posts a message on social media accusing her of insulting Islam right in the beginning of the Gaza crisis. A lot of people, especially in the muslim community, were shocked and horrified.

By publically accusing a Jewish figure of disrespecting Muslims, he can appear as "the defender" of humiliated muslims. He gains many votes.

Right after his tweet, El Krief received thousands of messages threatening to rape her and cut her throat. She now lives under police protection:

https://telquel.ma/instant-t/2023/12/05/polemique-provoquee-par-melenchon-la-journaliste-franco-marocaine-ruth-elkrief-placee-sous-protection-policiere_1844431/

This man knows exactly what he is doing.