We could look at the facts coldly, one by one, in order. The question from LFI MP Alma Dufour calling for a boycott of Israel, the start of the minister’s response – “France will continue” – without us knowing what happens next, and therefore what France intends to continue… On the benches of the Assembly, left coast, another rebellious elected official, Sébastien Delogu, deputy for Bouches-du-Rhône, stands up and brandishes the flag of Palestine.
Howls in the hemicycle, deafening hubbub, the ushers who seize the black, green and red standard, and Yaël Braun Pivet, the president of the National Assembly, announcing an upcoming sanction against the troublemaker, who shouts : “It is unacceptable.” Interruption of session. Nothing new under the sun, the theater of politics is so often made up of these chins, these “happenings.”
We might be surprised, we might wonder. Waving a flag, what a deal… The rules of the National Assembly remain unchanged, speech is free and cannot be disturbed. When the LREM deputy held up a banner “France kills in Yemen”, he received a call to order. Same fate for François Ruffin when he wore a football jersey on the stand. A flag is always less serious than having your foot photographed on a balloon bearing the image of the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt, less serious than calling him a “murderer” during the pension reform; and even less serious than launching “Return to Africa”, as RN Grégoire de Fournas did to a black French MP. He was excluded for 15 days for this, and Delogu suffered the same fate.
The highest possible sanction for an MP. It took a week to punish the first, and about an hour for Delogu on May 28. Imbalance of the sanction.
Recognition of Palestine
Delogu’s gesture is political, it is not violent. This is a good thing, the reason for living of the National Assembly is politics: we debate so as not to fight. There is always a better method for setting up a debate, but politics is also made up of symbols and dramatic events. Let us regret then that the LFI deputies never waved a Uyghur, Tibetan, or even that of Israel flag after October 7… However, the recognition of the Palestinian state is no less a legitimate debate while no solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems to be on the horizon.
With this sanction, the hemicycle gives the impression of looking away, while Ireland, Spain and Norway, members of the European Union, have just announced that they recognize the Palestinian state. In total, 146 of the 193 UN member countries officially recognize it.
In France, the matter is stuck but moving forward. The presidential majority itself has not resolved the debate: Valérie Hayer, the head of the Renaissance list, considers that “the conditions are not met” for the recognition of a Palestinian state, the number two on her list, Bernard Guetta indicates the opposite: “We must recognize a Palestinian state to accelerate a resumption of negotiations.” Jean-Yves Le Drian, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and president of the candidate’s support committee, said he was in favor in an interview with Parisian. There are even rumors that Emmanuel Macron would be “sensitive” to the question. “There is no taboo for France and I am totally ready to recognize a Palestinian state but […] I consider that this recognition must come at a useful time,” declared the president during his trip to Germany. And added: “I will not make an emotional recognition.”
Virilist duel
But we will talk neither about that, nor about the deaths in Rafah, nor about the Israeli hostages still in the hands of Hamas. We will talk for days about Sébastien Delogu, victim of who knows what, hero of who knows what, who will leave the hemicycle with a gesture of victory before going to celebrate his expulsion in a demonstration in Paris. Shift of the image with the sound of the bombings in Rafah.
We will rather talk about Meyer Habib, a claimed friend of Benyamin Netanyahu and the Israeli extreme right, who came to interrupt the LFI deputy David Guiraud who, for his part, rushed in front of the microphones and cameras as he left the hemicycle to surf on the controversy. A virilistic duel, we shout at each other, we insult each other, we tour the television sets to continue the ridiculous fistfights from a distance.
We will only talk about a controversy, about it and its feeders, which fuel the filthy beast that is social networks. A fever which destroys our public debate, annihilates any measured, calm, intelligible, dignified, fiery but eloquent debate. To this, we prefer face-to-face. Camp against camp. October 7 or May 27, please choose. Kibbutz or Rafah. What is serious and unacceptable is not located under the gilding of the National Assembly. Where are the wise men? Who are the clowns?