Is this the final whistle in a controversy that has lasted since Tuesday? In a response made public, Saturday, December 23, by deputies of La France insoumise (LFI), the president of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet writes that “the remarks made by a parliamentarian in the hemicycle of the Assembly are covered, in accordance with Article 26 of the Constitution, by the principle of irresponsibility, which is absolute and which cannot be lifted by any procedure.”
In this letter, Yaël Braun-Pivet (Renaissance) indicates that constitutional rules do not allow her to trigger the procedure herself which could lead to the lifting of an elected official’s immunity.
“Apologia for war crimes”
Last Thursday, 39 deputies from the environmentalist, PS and LFI groups asked the President of the National Assembly to lift the parliamentary immunity of their colleague Meyer Habib, for comments made in the hemicycle on Gaza.
In question, a sentence pronounced by the deputy for the 8th constituency of French people established outside France during the question session to the government on Tuesday. “While the Minister (of Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna) was invited to react to the death of a Quai d’Orsay agent following Israeli bombings on a residential building housing civilians, MP Meyer Habib distinctly pronounced , and twice, the words: “And it’s not over!”, comments that could “be akin to the apology of war crimes”, these deputies estimated.
Meyer Habib, whose constituency includes Israel, is a fierce defender of the Jewish state, supporting the bombings and military operations in Gaza, launched after the unprecedented attacks by Hamas on October 7.
The deputy from the Les Républicains (LR) group reacted strongly to the approach of the left-wing elected officials, believing that “their damp squib is only a crude counter-fire to try to make people forget the repeated apology for terrorism, negationism and the anti-Semitism at work in their ranks since October 7.”
Strong dissatisfaction of LFI deputies
The decision of the President of the National Assembly to reject the request for lifting of immunity aroused strong discontent on Saturday in the rebellious ranks. “The unconditional supporters of Israeli war criminals protect each other. A French MP can therefore calmly apologize for war crimes. What a shame!” declared MP Thomas Portes on the X platform (ex-Twitter) .