Debates at the Palais-Bourbon on the French presidency of the European Union briefly turned sour on Thursday July 28, after an Alsatian deputy was treated “ambassador of the Bundestag”the German Parliament, from the benches of the National Rally (RN). “I am a member of the National Assembly, of French nationality, not a representative of the Bundestag here”retorted Charles Sitzenstuhl, elected Renaissance (ex-La République en Marche), subsequently deploring a “insult to Alsace and its painful history”.
The invective, which can be heard on the recordings of the session, came from the ranks of the RN at the start of the intervention of the elected representative of Bas-Rhin in the gallery, and more precisely of the deputy of the 17e North constituency, Thibaut François.
The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Jean-Louis Bourlanges (MoDem) sided with the deputy victim of attacks “absurd”. “In the eyes of the National Rally, Alsace is not French but German”quipped Mr. Bourlanges. “Always the same rancid, Alsaçophobic and Europhobic extreme right. France deserves bettersaid Renaissance deputy for Haut-Rhin Brigitte Klinkert on Twitter.
The president of the session Naïma Moutchou (Horizons) also intervened to remind that there was in the Hemicycle “Only French elected officials, elected by the French people”.
“Defamatory and inadmissible remarks”
Later in the evening, RN deputy Thibaut François assured that he was not doing “obviously no allusion to the origins of the deputy”ironically on the “great notoriety” of M. Sitzenstuhl, of whom he did not know that he “was elected and even less Alsatian”.
“I wanted by my remarks to criticize the political positioning of the majority and the servility of Emmanuel Macron in the Franco-German couple”insisted Mr. François in a press release.
In his speech, Mr Sitzenstuhl then denounced the “crocodile tears” on Ukraine officials from RN Marine Le Pen and La France insoumise (LFI) Jean-Luc Mélenchon, qualified “agents spreading the Kremlin doxa in France”. “Defamatory and inadmissible remarks”, reacted Mr. François. The prosecution also made Arnaud Le Gall (LFI) jump, who denounced a remark “scandalous” against Mr. Mélanchon, who, according to him, has “never had the slightest acquaintance with Mr. Putin”. At the very start of the session, Mr. François also issued a “moved thought” for the Ukrainian people who are victims of a ” assault “. However, he criticized in the wake of the EU’s openness to a candidacy from kyiv, described as “unnecessary provocation against Russia”.
LFI MP Manuel Bompard meanwhile focused his attacks on the “starving balance sheet” of the French presidency of the EU, considering that it had missed “a historic opportunity to act together to protect the peoples of Europe from the economic and social consequences of the conflict”. Mr. Bourlanges denounced the “absurd and criminal decision” from “despicable power” of Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine. Secretary of State for Europe Laurence Boone, for her part, opening the debates, accused Moscow of wanting, with the war in Ukraine, to establish “a curtain of blood” around Russia.