Nazi salute in the Assembly hemicycle: call to order by deputy Rémy Rebeyrotte (Renaissance)
Deputy Rémy Rebeyrotte (Renaissance), who made a Nazi salute during a session in the National Assembly on July 12 to the attention of an elected member of the National Rally (RN), was sanctioned on Monday by a call to order , learned Agence France-Presse from the Presidency of the Assembly. The office of his political group must also decide on Monday on a possible sanction.
During a vote on the health bill, in which the majority was defeated, “a big guy from the RN got up making the Nazi salute” behind the spans, assured Mr. Rebeyrotte to AFP. The parliamentarian from Saône-et-Loire then mimed the gesture by telling him that“you shouldn’t do that”. The president of the RN group, Marine Le Pen, had asked for a sanction from the deputy of the presidential majority, and far-right deputies had denounced a “invention” in this supposed gesture of an elected member of their group.
Mr. Rebeyrotte was heard by the President of the Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet (Renaissance), who decided on a call to order, the first level of sanction provided for by the rules of the institution. No visual evidence of a Nazi salute by an RN MP was found. If necessary, the two offending Members would have been sanctioned, such a gesture being “unacceptable”.
In a statement issued a few days ago, Mr. Rebeyrotte wrote: “if the gesture that I committed to stigmatize an elected member of the FN could have offended consciences, I want to apologize”. “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.