Outrage at the Palais Bourbon. While the LFI deputy, Carlos Martens Bilongo, spoke in the chamber about the situation of the Ocean Viking, which transports migrants to the Mediterranean, the RN deputy, Grégoire de Fournas, shouted “to go back to Africa”. Shortly after, the president of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, adjourned the session, something unusual.
The departure, quickly spread on social networks, provoked the reaction of the entire political class. From the elected representatives of the Nupes to their Republican colleagues and the President of the Government, all parliamentary groups, with the exception of Agrupación Nacional, condemned these statements.
“Today they sent me back to the color of my skin,” said Carlos Martens Bilongo, who said that Grégoire’s comments from Fournas attacked him directly. “I was born in France, I am a French deputy, I did not think today that the National Assembly would insult me.”
“Today the extreme right has shown its true face,” said the president of the rebel group in the Assembly Mathilde Panot. “We are going to request the strongest sanction, the expulsion for several months” of this deputy. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, for his part, demanded on Twitter the “confiscation and exclusion of the aggressor”. A rally in support of Carlos Martens Bilongo will take place on Friday at 1 pm, not far from the National Assembly.
“Racism has no place in our democracy”
On the side of the presidential majority, the Renaissance deputies have launched an online petition asking for the resignation of Deputy RN.
The group “will not sit down” before a strong sanction against the RN deputy, said its vice president, Sylvain Maillard. “You can put ties (…) it is a deeply racist movement. Its dignity would have been to remove it,” he added. The highest collegiate body of the Assembly will meet on Friday at 2:30 p.m.
“Racism has no place in our democracy,” Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne reacted, indicating that “naturally,” the National Assembly office “will have to take sanctions.”
Emmanuel Macron also said he was “shocked” by the “intolerable words” of the RN deputy, BFMTV learned from the president’s entourage, confirming the statements reported by AFP.
“An extreme right DNA”
The Republicans also supported their colleague from La France insoumise. “There is an extreme right DNA. Racism is what differentiates the extreme right from the right,” Olivier Marleix, LR chief deputy, wrote on Twitter.
Position shared by his colleague Aurélien Pradié, who gives his “total support” to Carlos Martens Bilongo.
“The tie is no longer enough to hide the political and human misery of a RN deputy,” the parliamentarian tweeted, “deputies of the Nation sit in the National Assembly. Wherever they come from, wherever they come from, our colleague represents to France”.
The RN supports its deputy
Faced with the controversy, the RN group defends the Gironde deputy and affirms that he was referring to a “ship” of migrants mentioned in the question and not to Carlos Martens Bilongo. Marine Le Pen, absent from the chamber when Grégoire de Fournas left, lashed out at a “harsh” controversy.
Asked to explain his statements that he considers “kidnapped” by rebel France, the RN deputy explained that he was not targeting his colleague but rather the ship carrying the migrants and which is still in the Mediterranean Sea.
“I fully assume that immigrant ships don’t have to reach European ports,” he added to reporters.
The deputy is summoned to the office of the National Assembly on Friday to come to explain his statements.
Source: BFM TV
