LFI MP Rachel Keke brandishes a Palestinian flag in the National Assembly, the session suspended

New incident around Palestinian colors in the hemicycle. Rachel Keke, MP for La France insoumise, brandished a Palestinian flag during questions to the government, Tuesday 4 June. The session was briefly suspended after his gesture, which reproduced that of his colleague Sébastien Delogu who, a week earlier, had exhibited this same banner on the benches of the National Assembly. He was suspended for 15 days for this action.

“My colleague Sébastien Delogu was perhaps on the wrong side of the rules, but on the right side of history,” reacted Rachel Keke on X after her gesture. The President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, gave him a call to order with an entry in the minutes, and announced that the office of the Assembly would be convened to discuss a possible heavier sanction.

A few minutes earlier, dozens of left-wing deputies had arrived at the session dressed in white, black, green or red, so as to form, on the benches of the hemicycle, a Palestinian flag. A coordinated gesture to which deputies from the majority and the right reacted by putting on their tricolor scarves.

“I see everyone’s clothing. I think it is necessary to remember that we are in the hemicycle of the National Assembly”declared Yaël Braun-Pivet when opening the session. “The hemicycle is the place for democratic debate, and the expression of parliamentarians is carried out exclusively orally.”

LFI deputy Aymeric Caron, who asked the first question, challenged his colleagues on “the massacre of civilians in the Gaza Strip”, “without the slightest serious reaction [du] government”. He has denounced a “genocide” and asked Emmanuel Macron to recognize the Palestinian state. “You still fail to salute the memory of our 43 French compatriots brutally murdered on the 7th october”launched, in response, the Minister Delegate for Europe, Jean-Noël Barrot.