Several elected members of Marine Le Pen’s party received anonymous calls urging them to leave the hemicycle before a crucial vote on Monday afternoon.
Members of the National Rally denounce attempts at intimidation, which occurred Monday, February 6, on the occasion of the start of the examination of the pension reform in the National Assembly. Three parliamentarians explain having received malicious calls intended, according to them, to prevent them from sitting when they were to be present in the hemicycle, under penalty of seeing a text from the far-right group canceled.
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The president of the group, Marine Le Pen, castigated a “maneuver” and several complaints filed are being analyzed, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office. Franceinfo recaps.
Several calls before an important vote
Before debating the substance of the pension reform, the deputies of the National Rally tabled a referendum motion on Monday, aimed at suspending the examination of the text with which they disagree. For this motion to be voted on, all the parliamentarians who signed the motion – that is, all the members of the RN group – had to be present in the hemicycle. However, according to Marine Le Pen, several deputies received malicious communications to make them leave the benches of the National Assembly at that time.
In the voice recording that the deputy for Haute-Marne Laurence Robert-Dehault played to journalists on Monday evening at the National Assembly, a male voice announces that “one of [ses] relatives has just been hospitalized”. This man says he works in a “hospital Center”.
Anaïs Sabatini, RN deputy for Pyrénées-Orientales, broadcast a voice message from a man making similar comments to several media. Also targeted, the RN deputy for Pas-de-Calais Christine Engrand tells France Bleu Nord that she has received “a hidden call at 4:45 p.m.”. “I immediately called the Calais hospital. I called my daughter too, because I thought she had a problem. My daughter was fine and no one knew of a hospitalization”details the parliamentarian.
The RN denounces a “maneuver” and suspects the Nupes, which defends itself
Very quickly, the group understands that several elected officials have been contacted at the same time. Back in the hemicycle, Marine Le Pen takes the microphone to denounce “an extremely serious fact” and evokes “four or five women deputies” targeted. She says it’s a “maneuver aimed at preventing or distracting the Rassemblement national deputies from their presence to vote for this referendum motion”.
The Renaissance president of the social affairs commission, Fadila Khattabi, follows suit. “For once, I’m going to completely agree with Mrs. The pen. At the moment, many of us are receiving intimidation letters – I received one – with threats to our families, our children”she lamented.
“I fear, alas, that this is an internal blow to this assembly”, then commented Marine Le Pen to the press. The president of the RN, Jordan Bardella, half-suspect the left. “I don’t want to accuse the far left and Nupes without proof”, he declares on BFMTV Monday evening, before pointing the finger at “zadist techniques to which a large part of the far left to prevent the RN from submitting this text to a referendum”.
The President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, for her part denounces “pressures” And “unspeakable intimidation”. Questioned, the Nupes defended itself from being at the origin of these calls. “We fight fair, we don’t use that… Technically, I don’t see how we could do it. It’s quite a scandalous process”castigated the LFI deputy for Seine-Saint-Denis Alexis Corbière at the microphone of franceinfo. “I don’t know who it comes from, I can tell you that none of us would have had the idea of keeping the RN deputies away by such odious means”for his part swept the boss of the PS, Olivier Faure, Tuesday on LCI.
Four complaints received and analyzed by the prosecution
As of Monday, the various deputies targeted by these malicious calls assured that they were going to file a complaint. “We are going to find out who committed this offence, because we are obviously going to file a complaint and have the messages analyzed”, promised Marine Le Pen, Monday evening. The RN group specifies to franceinfo that the three deputies targeted by these malicious communications have not been placed under protection.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed to franceinfo that it had received “four complaints from RN deputies”, including Marine Le Pen, as president of the group. Two relate to text messages and one to malicious calls. These complaints, which mention acts of intimidation of parliamentarians, are being analyzed, specifies the prosecution.