A word was enough to set fire to the gunpowder in the hemicycle. On Tuesday après-midi, lors d’une séance de questions au gouvernement à l’Assemblée nationale, le député Rassemblement nationale Alexandre Loubet to invectivé le minister de l’Economie, lui reprochant ses réponses floues sur l’état de l’industrie en France. A fairly classic scenario during debates in the National Assembly.
But it is one word in particular that sparked the clash between the majority and Marine Le Pen’s group: that of “coward”, pronounced by the RN deputy with respect to Bruno Le Maire. Neither one nor two, the latter asked for a “solemn apology” for this choice of vocabulary.
“I have the honor to request a solemn apology from the National Association for having used the term ‘coward’ for a person who has always shown courage in his political commitment for 20 years,” Bruno Le Maire protested.
“Apologies, Mrs. Le Pen”
If the minister’s reaction was applauded by the majority, all the RN deputies stood up under the urging of the group’s president, Marine Le Pen, to leave the chamber. According to our information, when it happened, Bruno Le Maire again demanded “apologies, apologies, Mrs. Le Pen, apologies.”
“Do not threaten the deputies, Mr. Mayor,” he replied, according to the same sources.
A member of the RN group that attended the scene adds that the Minister of Economy pointed his finger at the deputies while urging them to be “careful.” A word considered threatening by those concerned.
“He threatened us by pointing his finger at us. I told him that I would never accept that they threaten the RN deputies”, Marine Le Pen abounds with BFMTV.
Alexandre Loubet receives a call to order
Bruno Le Maire would also have arrested Minister Franck Riester to request that a sanction be taken after the episode, adds a member of the Government.
Returning to the incident a little later in the afternoon, the president of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, decreed a call to order for Alexandre Loubet, with entry in the minutes, qualifying as ‘”insult” the word used by MP RN .
“That does not exempt him from apologizing to the minister,” he added.
In front of her, with a mocking smile on his lips, Alexandre Loubet shook his head from left to right disapprovingly.
“Let him go plant strawberries instead,” launches Marine Le Pen
This was followed by a skirmish between Marine Le Pen and Bruno Le Maire. In the corridors of the National Assembly, the former once again lamented the minister’s reaction to the press, insisting that the deputies of her group “not [laisseraient] don’t let yourself be insulted by any minister”.
“If you can’t keep calm, you should go plant strawberries,” he said.
On Twitter, it is the word “inadmissible” used by the president of the RN to qualify the words of Bruno Le Maire.
Bruno Le Maire “still waiting” for an apology
The latter’s response: “When a deputy insults a minister who has just responded in a republican manner by calling him a ‘coward’, this minister has the right to demand an apology. I am still waiting for them.”
“The insult should have no place in our national political debate. (…) It is simply a red line that has been crossed in our democratic debate,” he still declares in a Twitter video this Tuesday night, renewing his “petition sorry” to the RN.
Later that day, it was another deputy from the RN group who received a call to order: after asking the Minister of National Education, Pap Ndiaye, a question about Islamic attire at school, Frédéric Boccaletti described the latter as “community” . Yaël Braun-Pivet then administered the same sanction to him as Alexandre Loubet, to the joint applause – a fact quite rare to underline – of the majority and of Nupes.
Source: BFM TV
