“The Assembly is a place for confrontation of ideas, but through this parliamentary XV, it is an opportunity to meet other deputies, to see them differently, to discuss with them, to realize that despite the disagreements there are common passions and this Socializing is the charm of the parliamentary XV”. This praise of the parliamentary rugby team is signed by Alexis Corbière. And three years after the deputy France Insoumise (LFI) elected in Seine-Saint-Denis pronounced it in front of the France 2 camera , acquires a new resonance this Wednesday.
In fact, this cross-party peace of the brave that had allowed in particular Alexis Corbière and Louis Aliot, then front deputy for the Pyrénées-Orientales, both to evolve in the same XV rugby in 2019, has lived. And he swears with the boycott of the parliamentary soccer team on the left due to the presence of RN deputies within it. While the team plays a charity match this Wednesday against the National Union of Professional Soccer Players in favor of the “e-infancia” association, players from the Nupes ranks gave up participating the day before.
Aliot denounces a “stupid” withdrawal
In its press release, La France insoumise denounced a “political recovery”, refusing to serve through this party the “alleged normalization” of the far-right party in the National Assembly.
Louis Aliot, who aspires to the presidency of the National Association, and was therefore one of the executives of the XV Parliamentary when he represented the Eastern Pyrenees in the previous legislature, reacted this Wednesday to this change in attitude of his former colleagues. Contacted by BFMTV.com, the Mayor of Perpignan launched:
“I find this decision (that of the PS and LFI deputies, editor’s note) stupid. Rugby and football are not the same spirit. It is a sectarian spirit that we bring to politics. I am not surprised by football. I am still friend of deputies who are no longer elected and who are not at all on my political side.
“We all know each other a little”
Far from being a simple copy of the Palais-Bourbon football team, its XV has its own history. It dates back to its founding in 1976 and since 1991, elected rugby players have faced their English peers, marching to the famous “Crunch” of the VI Tournament of Nations.
It was also during the 2019 edition of the meeting between French and English parliamentarians that television witnessed this paradoxical complicity between them. Interrupting a preparatory training for this crossing of the English Channel organized behind the National Assembly, France 2 journalists give the floor to Louis Aliot: “We come from rugby countries, so we all know each other a bit, we know our clubs AND allows you to sleep late.”
The partnership of these opposing sides, and especially of Louis Aliot and Alexis Corbière, is paying off in any case. The French XV thus prevailed away from home, scoring four tries for a final score of 20-5.
“Rugby and alcohol come together”
A month later, again but this time in Ireland. Unfortunately, for a less favorable result, the French deputies bowed (17-24) against the Irish. But this Gaelic excursion, immortalized this time by the spectacle Dailyagain it allowed to verify the good general agreement.
French supporters present at the scene and who joined an outing to the representatives’ pub the night before, note: “Last night, they didn’t seem to have a personal fight.” “Rugby and alcohol come together,” believes yet another.
Neither the defeat nor the possible smell of ethanol prevents the interrogation of Alexis Corbière and Louis Aliot. “With your head you want to do things but you tell yourself…”, begins the first, before continuing: “There is one that is heavy!”. “All 4? Yes!” Approves his colleague. We shouldn’t be seeing any more of these sequences for the foreseeable future.
Source: BFM TV
