Grégoire de Fournas, from Le Pen’s party, is sanctioned for having said “go back to Africa” to a deputy with Congolese roots
He is the second member of the National Assembly temporarily excluded in the history of the Fifth Republic
The racist comment of a far-right deputy punished with the parliamentary sanction harder in France. The National Assembly was implacable this Friday with the representative of the National Regrouping (RN, party of Marine Le Pen), Grégoire de Fournas, who said on Thursday that “Go back to Africa & rdquor; while a representative of the left with Congolese roots was speaking on the platform. The French Parliament decided this Friday to sanction it with two week exclusion of his seat. It is the second time in the history of the Fifth Republic in which the lower house pronounces such a punishment.
The racist comment of the ultra deputy has generated a stir in France. “Given the seriousness of the facts & rdquor; and the “legitimate emotion & rdquor ;, the president of the National Assembly, the centrist Yaël Braun-Pivet, suspended the parliamentary session on Thursday. She summoned a assembly table meeting in which it was decided this Friday to apply the harshest sanction, later ratified in a vote in the hemicycle. In addition to the two weeks of exclusion, his salary will be cut in half for the next two months.
“We must not weaken our democracy, in a world so fractured it is our most precious asset. I ask that there be dignity in our debates & rdquor ;, assured the president of the Assembly in the announcement of this decision. “There can be no racism in our seats. Out! & rdquor ; tweeted Mathilde Panot, representative of the NUPES coalition, formed by the France Insumisa (related to Podemos in France), the Socialist Party, the greens and the communists. He was a deputy of this coalition, the rebellious Carlos Martens Bilongo -born in France, but the son of Congolese parents-, who was insulted while making a speech about the humanitarian ships rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean.
Known for his xenophobic tweets
“I am totally innocent of the facts that reproach me. I consider this sanction, of unprecedented harshness, as a great injustice & rdquor ;, reacted De Fournas, one of the 89 deputies (out of a total of 577 seats) currently available to the RN in the Assembly. Before the stir generated by his words, he defended himself by assuring that he actually said “let them return to Africa & rdquor; and that he was referring to the humanitarian ships.
Je suis totally innocent des faits que l’on me reproach. Je ressens cette sanction d’une dureté inouïe avec une grande injustice. More respectueux de l’institution, je m’y soumets.
— Grégoire de Fournas (@gdefournas) November 4, 2022
However, these excuses did not convince the vast majority of deputies – from the left to the Republican right, passing through the center of Macron – who voted in favor of the sanction. De Fournas had already done in the past several racist tweets in which he accused Africans of being in love with French social aid or that “we must expel all Malians from France & rdquor ;.
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Despite repeated requests for him to resign, Le Pen defended his deputy and considered that the sanction “moves away from freedom of expression, from democracy & rdquor ;. The controversy over this racist comment occurs practically on the eve of the congress that the RN celebrates Saturday in Paris. A national meeting in which the name of the new president will be chosen from a xenophobic and ultra-nationalist formation. Jordan Bardella MEP and Perpignan Mayor Louis Aliot compete to happen leading the formation to Le Pen, who will continue to be the leader of this space.
Although this congress is presented as one more stage in the standardization of the RN, which aspires to become a party like the others, this strategy has been hampered by these xenophobic statements. “I have always been convinced that the National Regrouping is a racist group and this confirms it once again & rdquor ;, said Bilongo.