The controversial gesture has caused a lot of ink to flow. On July 12, the deputy LREM Rémy Rebeyrotte made a Nazi salute in the hemicycle of the National Assembly to the attention of an elected RN. He later explained that he wanted to mimic the gesture of his political adversary by telling him that “we must not do that”. During a vote on the health bill, where the majority was beaten, “a big guy from the RN got up doing the Nazi salute” at the back of the spans, Rémy Rebeyrotte assured AFP .
The elected majority was finally sanctioned Monday by a call to order, we learned from the presidency of the Assembly. The boss of the RN Marine Le Pen group asked for a sanction from the macronist, and far-right deputies denounced an “invention” in this alleged gesture of an elected member of their group.
“Unacceptable” gesture
Rémy Rebeyrotte was heard last week by the President of the Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet (LREM), who decided on a call to order, the first level of sanction provided for by the regulations of the institution. No visual evidence of such a Nazi salute by an RN deputy has been found. If necessary, the two offending deputies would have been sanctioned, such a gesture being “unacceptable”.
The office of the LREM group also heard Rémy Rebeyrotte on Monday, and its president Aurore Bergé asked him for “an unconditional public apology”, reported a member to AFP. He must also commit “to exemplary behavior, at a time when the constant provocations coming in particular from the Nupes pose a real problem in the holding of parliamentary debates”, according to another participant. “It is not in my intentions” to repeat such a gesture, then declared the person concerned to AFP.
Fight against extremism
In a statement released a few days ago, he said: “if the gesture I made to stigmatize an elected member of the FN (sic) could have offended consciences, I want to apologize for it”. “I will never give up the fight against extremism, and in particular against the far right, its attempt to trivialize, its xenophobic, hateful values, dividing Europe and French society”, he added.
Far-right MPs have never been so numerous, with a group of 89 members. Without giving in on the substance of their program, they are in search of institutional respectability and intend to continue the “de-demonization” of the RN.