The deputy Rassemblement national Grégoire de Fournas, accused of having made racist remarks in session, has been temporarily excluded from the Palais-Bourbon, announced this Friday the president of the Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet.
The decision was confirmed by a vote in the hemicycle, during which the deputies in favor of the sanction, the heaviest provided for by the regulations, stood up. The president asked Grégoire de Fournas, elected from Gironde, to leave the hemicycle before speaking. “ Free democratic debate cannot allow everything (…) and especially not racism “, said Yaël Braun-Pivet.
Grégoire de Fournas admitted having launched on Thursday “ to return to Africa » during an intervention by the elected LFI Carlos Martens Bilongo, who spoke about the ” illegal immigration drama during the government question time. The deputy for Gironde then categorically denied any racist character, assuring to speak of the humanitarian boat Ocean Viking stranded at sea with 234 migrants, and not of Carlos Martens Bilongo, elected black of Val-d’Oise. He denounced a manipulation of LFI ” aiming to lend him “ disgusting words “.
After hearing Grégoire de Fournas, the office of the Assembly decided to pronounce against him a ” censorship with suspension “, which provides for a reduction by half of his parliamentary allowance for two months and the prohibition to participate in parliamentary work or to appear at the Palais-Bourbon for fifteen days.
This is only the second time that such a sanction has been pronounced since 1958 and the advent of the Fifth Republic. The first dates from 2011. It was taken against the related PCF deputy Maxime Gremetz, who was accused of having disrupted a meeting devoted to the emergency situation in Japan after the Fukushima accident.
The heaviest penalty
Nupes and presidential camp pleaded for the sanction ” the heaviest against MP RN. “ The question of his resignation arises “Launched Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on Friday on BFMTV and RMC, adding that he would sign a petition from the Renaissance group demanding his departure. The Greens and elected LFI are also asking for his resignation.
According to two participants in the meeting of the Bureau of the Assembly, the decision was taken unanimously, the National Rally deputies present having chosen to leave the room and not to participate in the vote.
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The penalty is ” what we asked “, declared Mathilde Panot, president of the LFI group. For her part, the president of the RN group, Marine Le Pen, denounced a procedure “ Politics “. “ If every time a statement lacks finesse, it were to be excluded from the National Assembly, we would feel at ease, we would have room “, she told the press.
(With agencies)