As tradition dictates, he was the first to speak. And it has already sparked a controversy. The first session in the National Assembly, recently elected after the legislative elections, was marked by a first exit already denounced by the various oppositions.
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Shortly after declaring the 16th legislature of the National Assembly “open”, the deputy of the National Rally, José Gonzalez, on the “perch” for a few hours as dean of the Assembly, held an introductory speech with strong references to French Algeria which shocked some of the deputies.
Thus, at the age of 79, José Gonzalez first speaks and evokes the unity of the deputies and launches into a parenthesis on his personal history. His voice then chokes when he evokes Algeria. It looks like “The child of a France moreover torn from its native land by the winds of history. In 1962, I left part of my France there“, says this black foot born in Oran.
Before going further in front of the press. When asked if the French army has committed crimes in Algeria, he replies: “CFrench army rhymes, I don’t think, crimes against humanity even less. If I take you with me to Algeria, to the Djebel, many Algerians who have never known France say ‘when are you coming back?’“. Before concluding “having little or no knowledge of what OAS is“, IOrganization of the secret army, armed wing of the defenders of French Algeria, responsible for more than 2200 deaths in Algeria and 70 deaths in France.
A shocking speech for many left-wing deputies, starting with Alexis Corbière of France Insoumise. “To say ‘I don’t know whether to judge the crimes, real or not, of the OAS’ is called historical negationism. The National Assembly, today, was chaired by a man who makes historical negationism on a difficult moment in the history of France“, thus denounced the Insoumis, joined by Sébastien Jumel of the Communist Party. “This is inevitably the first stigma of a reading of History different from the rest of us.” The deputies of the Nupes see there, the end of the “demonizationof the National Rally.