In the National Assembly,
“You’ll see, wait a little…”. Tuesday morning, the environmentalist deputy Benjamin Lucas is making mysteries about the upcoming coup. A week after the exclusion of the rebellious deputy Sébastien Delogu, who had brandished a Palestinian flag in the hemicycle, the Bourbon palace seems ready to burst into flames.
Will left-wing elected officials wear the colors of Palestine for Questions to the Government, as the press has reported? At a press conference, Mathilde Panot tries to cover her tracks. “I don’t think we are dressed in the colors of the Palestinian flag, unless it has changed color…” she replies, smirking.
Left-wing elected officials in the colors of Palestine
But at 3 p.m., the boss of the LFI group swapped her dark suit jacket for a bright red dress when she entered the chamber. Alongside him, rebellious elected officials, communists and ecologists (but not socialists) wore the colors of the Palestinian flag: green, black, red and white. “We refuse to be unable to express our support for the Palestinian population,” Benjamin Lucas justified a little earlier.
Even before speaking, the atmosphere is electric. The majority has a weary look, the right-wing elected officials display their tricolor scarves and mock the outfit of their opponents. “And long live Italia!” », say a few elected officials, preferring to see the green-white-red of our transalpine friends.
LFI accuses the government of “complicity”
From the perch, the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet can only note the obvious: “I see everyone’s clothing… The hemicycle is the place for democratic debate and the expression of parliamentarians is carried out exclusively orally,” she sighs, annoyed.
The first question, asked by the rebellious Aymeric Caron, ignites the debates. “Gaza is today a ghetto, where the Israeli army is exterminating a people that France has abandoned,” says the former journalist, accusing the government of “complicity” in refusing to recognize the State of Palestine.
A new flag raised
Jean-Noël Barrot, minister responsible for Europe, responds: “241 days and you still fail to salute the memory of our 43 compatriots brutally murdered on October 7,” he tackles, calling on LFI elected officials to “condemn without appeal the behavior of Hamas.
The Assembly completely burst into flames when a new Palestinian flag appeared in the hemicycle, this time in the hands of Rachel Keke. ” No ! No ! No ! No ! », Yaël Braun-Pivet can’t believe his eyes, and bangs one hand on his desk. And immediately announces that the rebellious elected official will receive a call to order with entry in the minutes – the strongest sanction provided for in the regulations. The session is suspended but the elected LR and RN refuse to leave the hemicycle and sing a Marseillaise at the top of their lungs…
“Happening”
After the break, calm returned, helped by the departure of many Nupes deputies, who paraded in the Salle des Quatre Colonnes to justify their new “happening”. For the majority, there is dismay. “They created their buzz, their stupidity, with the costumes, all that was missing was the trumpet… It gives a terrible image of the Assembly,” sighs Sylvain Maillard, the boss of the Renaissance group.
A little earlier in the morning, at a press conference, Socialist MP Christine Pirès Beaune, for her part, seemed to regret the events to come: “Everyone can dress as they want. But every time we talk about form, we put form over substance…”