A fake interview with a Jewish philosopher which was published on a satirical website has gone viral amongst elements of the French far-left and far-right, who have been sharing it on social media along with antisemitic messages.

The Belgian site, called Nordpresse, claimed that Bernard-Henri Lévy had said that if Jean-Luc Mélenchon was elected president he would leave the country. Mr Mélenchon is the far-left candidate in France’s Presidential election; the site claimed that Mr Lévy stated that he could not agree to a 90 per cent taxation of his revenues over a million euros, and that he expected to become an International Business Minister under a government led by Emanuel Macron, the centre-left candidate.

Other satirical stories about Mr Lévy on the site included one about the philosopher claiming to have shot down a Daesh plane by hypnotising the pilot, and challenging Vladimir Putin to a duel to the death.

However, the story about Mr Levy (known by the acronym BHL in France) was subsequently spread on Twitter by supporters of Mr Melenchon, who appear to have believed that the story was real. Antisemitic responses were made in response, with one Twitter user saying that Mr Levy should “shove off to Israel or the States, you son of a bitch”. Another user showed an advert for Tel Aviv, saying “If Melenchon wins BHL knows where he can go back to”, including a link to the far-left antisemitic comedian Dieudonne. Mr Levy is not a US or Israeli citizen.

In reality Mr Levy has publicly criticised Mr  Mélenchon, but not about tax rates. On Twitter this week, Mr Levy posted “a reminder of the deplorable remarks by Mélenchon following 2014 rallies featuring chanting about death to Jews”, which included a link to an article which described how the far-left candidate had described such rallies, which were organised as anti-Israel demonstrations, as “remaining dignified and embodying better than anyone the founding values of the French republic.”