The deputies of the National Assembly voted for the heaviest sanction against the deputy RN Grégoire de Fournas, Friday, November 4, namely his temporary exclusion of 15 days. “Let’s not weaken our democracy, asked the president of the Palais-Bourbon, Yaël Braun-Pivet, after having submitted to the vote the sanction proposal decided by the office of the Assembly which met earlier in the afternoon. “I appeal to the dignity of our debates, to the refusal of all hatred and all violence, even verbal.
>> Follow in our live the latest developments in the National Assembly, after the racist remarks made by the deputy RN Grégoire de Fournas
The sanction adopted, the most severe provided for by the internal regulations of the Palais-Bourbon, also involves the deprivation, for two months, of half of the parliamentary allowance allocated to the deputy, and “prohibition to take part in the work of the Assembly and to reappear in the Palace of the Assembly until the expiration of the fifteenth sitting day following that on which the sentence was pronounced”.
Deputy RN Grégoire de Fournas reacted on Twitter by admitting to submit to the sanction voted by the Assembly, nevertheless evoking a feeling of “great injustice”. The deputy LFI Carlos Martens Bilongo for his part said “relieved” after the sanction pronounced against the deputy RN. “I have always been convinced that the RN group was racist and it is confirmed”said the elected Nupes. During a question on migrants posed by MP Carlos Martens Bilongo on Thursday, the elected RN had launched in the hemicycle : “Let them go back to Africa!”.
“Let them go back to Africa”: franceinfo has chosen to keep the parentheses to report the racist remarks made by the deputy RN Grégoire de Fournas, Thursday, November 3, at the National Assembly, whether in our titles, in our articles or in our live. Indeed, this sentence, expressed orally, could just as well have been pronounced in the singular (“Let him return to Africa”) or in the plural (“Let them return to Africa”).
The official minutes of the session transcribe it in the singular. Accused of having targeted Carlos Martens Bilongo, a black LFI deputy who was speaking at the podium on the fate of hundreds of migrants stranded at sea, Grégoire de Fournas assured that his “answer concerned the boat and the migrants”, and not his colleague. In a previous version, he explained that he had said “Let him return to Africa”, in reference to the “SOS Mediterranean boat”.