Manon Aubry, a French member of the European Parliament for La France Insoumise (LFI), has clashed with journalist Jean-Michel Aphatie on social media platform X after calling billionaires "pests" who should be banned outright.
Aubry made the remark during a speech at LFI's summer university this weekend, telling the party's supporters that taxing the rich was not enough, that billionaires were pests, and that they needed to be banned. She then shared a clip of the speech on X.
It was that word, "pests," that drew a sharp response from Aphatie, a veteran French political journalist. He wrote on X that her language carried "the violence of totalitarianism." To back up his point, he cited two historical examples: Edouard Drumont, who in 1886 described Jews as a "harmful animal," and Adolf Hitler, who in 1933 referred to them as "harmful beings."
Accusations of antisemitism
Aubry immediately pushed back, accusing Aphatie of drawing an equivalence between "billionaires" and "Jews." She described the comparison as an antisemitic prejudice that she said was being carried by what she called the "media bourgeoisie."
In a follow-up post dated August 22, 2026, Aphatie wrote that hearing the word "pests" should remind people that it belongs to the vocabulary of totalitarianism. He added that hearing it should prompt people to ask what someone who uses such language would do with power, and said it was frightening to hear the word applied to human beings.
Who are Aubry and Aphatie
Aubry sits in the European Parliament for La France Insoumise, the left-wing French party founded by Jean-Luc Melenchon. Aphatie is a longstanding commentator on French politics, known for his frequent television and radio appearances as well as his active presence on X.
Drumont, the 19th-century figure Aphatie referenced, was a French journalist and politician best known for his 1886 book "La France Juive," a work widely regarded as a foundational text of modern antisemitism in France.
Both sides hold their ground
Without repeating any reference to Jews, Aphatie later tried to steer the exchange back toward the word itself. He insisted that "pests" is a dehumanizing term rooted in totalitarian language, and reiterated that it was frightening to hear it used about human beings.
Aubry did not back away from her position either. The dispute, playing out in public between the two figures, drew hundreds of reactions from users on X as it unfolded over the weekend.
