Information has been circulating since Tuesday on social networks and on TV shows: the France Insoumise deputies have reportedly refused to applaud in tribute to the victims of Hamas, unlike the rest of the National Assembly.
On Twitter / of the National Assembly applauds the victims of terrorist attacks, except@FranceInsoumise”.
On the LCI set, journalist Ruth Elkrief also made this statementmaintaining that “the elected representatives of LFI did not applaud, like the rest of the chamber, in memory of the victims”.
This sequence comes as France Insoumise has been criticized for several days by its adversaries but also by its allies within Nupes for its positions concerning the war between Hamas and Israel. In particular, the refusal of the deputies to qualify the organization as a “terrorist” movement, and the position considered ambiguous of a press release issued a few hours after the start of the Hamas attack on Saturday September 7.
FAKE OFF
The rebellious deputies did not refuse to applaud in tribute to the victims of Hamas. The applause was for “unconditional support” and “total solidarity” with Israel.
The video which shows the deputies applauding, with the exception of those from France Insoumise, was filmed at the end of the opening speech of the President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet on October 10. There complete sequence is available on the Assembly website (start at 3:50 p.m.).
Yaël Braun-Pivet declares: “ […] I want to reiterate here that Israel is a friendly country, to which I want to reaffirm, in the name of national representation, our total solidarity and our unconditional support.” Then followed the applause of the majority of deputies. As certain rebellious deputies, notably Manuel Bompard, argued, the refusal to applaud is explained by opposition to the “unconditional support” for Israel affirmed by the speech of the national assembly.
“We did not applaud the speech by the president of the AN calling for “unconditional support” for Israel at a time when it is engaged in a blockade contrary to international law,” the MP declared on Twitter/X in response to journalist Alexis Delafontaine.
A minute of silence respected
At the end of her speech, the President of the Assembly asked for a minute of silence, “in tribute to the victims, as a sign of solidarity with their families, as well as with those who have no news of people taken hostage or missing” . A tribute followed by the France Insoumise parliamentary group.
“What we refused to applaud is the unconditional support for Israel,” also confirms MP Mathilde Panot. Near 20 minutes, the entourage of the parliamentary group confirms the position of the rebellious deputies against the use of the term “unconditional support”: “There is a manipulation in the tweet, there was no question of not paying tribute to the victims. We believe that we are in a situation of war crimes and that France must lead a peace process with a ceasefire.”
“The same morning, at the conference of presidents, Mathilde Panot proposed that tribute be paid to all the victims: Israeli, Palestinian and foreign (nationals). It was refused by Yaël Braun-Pivet,” we also assure LFI.
Contacted on this subject, the Presidency of the National Assembly has not yet responded.