A rally in support of Carlos Martens Bilongo is organized this Friday at 1 p.m. in front of the National Assembly by La France insoumise. While the Insoumis asked a question to the government on Thursday in the hemicycle, Grégoire de Fournas, a deputy from the National Rally (RN) interrupted him with a racist remark: “let him return to Africa”. The incident led to an interruption of the session. 20 minutes looks back on this stormy sequence while the office of the National Assembly, convened this Friday at 2:30 p.m., will decide the fate of the deputy RN.
What happened this Thursday at the National Assembly?
Faced with the violence of the invective, the bronca rose from the benches of the Assembly, all political groups combined. Thursday, Carlos Martens Bilongo, rebellious black deputy from Val-d’Oise, asked the government a question about illegal immigration. “Let him return to Africa”, then claimed Grégoire de Fournas, deputy RN, according to the written report of the debates of the Assembly.
“Given the seriousness of the facts”, the President of the National Assembly Yael Braun Pivet suspended the question session. An extremely rare event at the Palais-Bourbon.
What were the reactions of Carlos Martens Bilongo and Grégoire de Fournas?
“I hear ‘go back to Africa’, I answer tit for tat ‘not at all’. I say to myself: “What am I doing here? It’s 2022” (…). Do you realize the violence? We send French people back to their skin color ”, was indignant this Friday on RMC Carlos Martens Bilongo. The day before, the deputy had denounced on France info “extremely shocking” remarks. “My question is interrupted by a deputy who sends me back to a continent that I do not know (…) I do not know Africa, I am a Frenchman like everyone else and today in the hemicycle, we insult my nobody, we insult millions of French people who look like me, ”he assured.
For his part, Grégoire de Fournas immediately said “assume” and indicated that he did not want to apologize. Since the incident, the deputy of Gironde reproaches “a manipulation” of his remarks and affirms not to have addressed to his colleague deputy, but to the boat of illegal migrants mentioned in the question posed. “I expressed a perfectly legitimate sentence, which is not diabolical”, argues the one who is also a winegrower.
Still, Grégoire de Fournas deleted racist tweets from his Twitter account shortly after his appearance in the Hemicycle. Internet users nevertheless took screenshots of these statements. Among them, that of this message in which Grégoire de Fournas invites an Internet user to “go to Africa” if he “wants to be with black people”.
What are the politicians saying?
Politicians from all sides unanimously support Carlos Martens Bilongo. The shock wave spread from the Assembly to the Elysée. Thursday evening, the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron said he was “hit” by “intolerable words”, according to his entourage quoted by AFP. “Racism has no place in our democracy,” commented the Prime Minister. Elisabeth Borne immediately assured that the office of the National Assembly should take sanctions.
“I hope that the office of the National Assembly will take the strongest decision to sanction this deputy. I think that the question of his resignation arises for him”, indicated this Friday on BFMTV the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin. “They may put on ties (…) It’s a deeply racist movement”, exclaimed Sylvain Maillard, vice-president of the Renaissance group, who assures that the presidential majority will not sit until a heavy sanction does not will not have been pronounced. “The extreme has shown its true face”, commented Mathilde Panot, head of the LFI group at the exit of the hemicycle.
The RN’s “normalization” strategy has, for its part, taken a big hit in the wing, a month after the 50th anniversary of the far-right party. The fact remains that, on Twitter, faced with the outcry, Marine Le Pen defended the deputy of her group, believing that “the controversy created by our political opponents is crude and will not deceive the French”. And the leader of the RN to estimate that “Grégoire de Fournas obviously spoke of the migrants transported by boats by the NGOs mentioned by our colleague in his question to the government”. “It is rather a not very classy manipulation of LFI”, decided Sébastien Chenu, deputy RN, vice-president of the National Assembly … And who will sit later in the office of the Assembly.
What is the risk of deputy Grégoire de Fournas?
Exceptionally advanced, the office of the Assembly meets, in fact, this Friday at 2:30 p.m. to decide the “fate” of Grégoire de Fournas. The far-right politician potentially faces four disciplinary sanctions. Within the range of possible sanctions, the office of the Assembly could pronounce a censure with temporary exclusion.
This is the highest disciplinary sanction. It entails the deprivation of half of the parliamentary indemnity of the deputy for two months and the prohibition to appear at the Palais Bourbon for fifteen sitting days. The other possible sanctions, lighter, are the call to order, the call to order with entry in the minutes and the so-called “simple” censorship, ie the withdrawal of half of his parliamentary allowance for one month.
While Nupes and the presidential camp plead for the “heaviest” sanction, the office’s proposal must be approved by a seated-standing vote of the Assembly which would take place at 3:30 p.m. this Friday. Of course, 20 minutes will keep you informed of the decision.
Source: 20minutes
I, Ronald Payne, am a journalist and author who dedicated his life to telling the stories that need to be said. I have over 7 years of experience as a reporter and editor, covering everything from politics to business to crime.
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