After attacking Renaissance MP Belkhir Belhaddad, asking him in particular how Hamas is doing, National Rally elected official Laurent Jacobelli admitted to having “shown clumsiness in the terms”.
The RN deputy for Moselle Laurent Jacobelli insulted his Renaissance colleague Belkhir Belhaddad on Friday October 13 during an altercation between the two elected officials, according to a video posted online on the website of the Republican Lorraine. In a low voice, the RN deputy said to the Renaissance deputy: “Remain polite, okay, I’m going to make a mess of your place.”.
Then a little later: “Is Madame Leduc well, is Hamas well?”, referring to the deputy for Moselle Charlotte Leduc, member of the LFI group, whom the RN accuses of complacency with Hamas. What the Insoumis reject by emphasizing that they condemn the abuses.
“Don’t threaten me!” then retorts Belkhir Belhaddad before being called a “scum” by Laurent Jacobelli. “I am not scum. You insult all the inhabitants of my constituency”, replies Belkhir Belhaddad. “You insult them by placing flowers with Madame Leduc who supports Hamas”replies the RN deputy.
“I was clumsy with the terms”
Denouncing remarks “inexcusable” of the RN deputy, Belkhir Belhaddad announced in a press release that he would file a complaint “in the coming days” and specified that Olivier Véran “gives him all his support.”
“I was clumsy with the terms,” admitted Laurent Jacobelli to AFP. “But there was no implication, I don’t see what word, what sentence could suggest that I considered the person in front of me other than as an MP who was behaving badly”he added, while asserting that “MP Belhaddad is traditionally odious with the RN”.
Laurent Jacobelli’s invectives provoked numerous reactions. “The dignity of Belkhir Belhaddad in the face of this abject behavior does honor to the tricolor scarf he wears. I send him friendship and support, in my name and that of our Assembly”declared Renaissance President of the Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet on X.
“The insults and intimidation against Belkhir Belhaddad (…) by a deputy of the National Rally are unworthy,” reacted to AFP the president of the Renaissance group, Sylvain Maillard.