After attacking Belkhir Belhaddad on Friday, whom he notably called “scum”, the elected representative of the National Rally admitted having “shown clumsiness in the terms”.
The RN deputy for Moselle Laurent Jacobelli insulted his Renaissance colleague Belkhir Belhaddad on Friday October 13 during an altercation between the two elected officials, according to a video posted online on the website of the Republican Lorraine. In a low voice, the RN deputy said to his colleague from Renaissance: “Remain polite okay, I’m going to make a mess of your house”.
Then a little later: “Is Madame Leduc well, is Hamas well?”, referring to the deputy for Moselle Charlotte Leduc, member of the La France insoumise group, whom the RN accuses of complacency with the Palestinian Islamist group. What the members of LFI reject by emphasizing that they condemn the abuses.
“Don’t threaten me!”
“Don’t threaten me!” then retorts Belkhir Belhaddad before being called a “scum” by Laurent Jacobelli. “I am not scum. You insult all the inhabitants of my constituency”, replies the majority member. “You insult them by placing flowers with Ms. Leduc who supports Hamas”replies the RN deputy.
Denouncing remarks “inexcusable” of the RN deputy, on the sidelines of a trip by Olivier Véran, government spokesperson, to Hayange, Belkhir Belhaddad announced in a press release that he would file a complaint “in the coming days”. “We can clearly see the true face of the RN: as soon as we start to titillate them on the merits, on the ground, in people’s real lives, they lose control and we see their true face. The masks fall”the Renaissance MP also reacted to AFP.
“I was clumsy”
“I was clumsy with the terms,” admitted Laurent Jacobelli, still with Agence France-Presse. “But there was no implication, I don’t see what word, what sentence could suggest that I considered the person in front of me other than as an MP who was behaving badly”he added, while asserting that “MP Belhaddad is traditionally odious with the RN”.
Laurent Jacobelli’s invectives provoked numerous reactions. “The dignity of Belkhir Belhaddad in the face of this abject behavior does honor to the tricolor scarf he wears. I send him friendship and support, in my name and that of our Assembly”, said on the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet.
“The insults and intimidation against Belkhir Belhaddad (…) by a National Rally deputy are unworthy,” the president of the Renaissance group, Sylvain Maillard, also reacted to AFP.