The affair shook the National Assembly and even far beyond. Thursday evening, the Renaissance majority party launched an online petition to demand the resignation of MP RN Grégoire de Fournas. A few hours before, the latter had launched a sound “that he returns to Africa” in the Hemicycle, while Carlos Martens Bilongo, an elected LFI, asked a question about the future of the Ocean Viking, a ship blocked in Mediterranean for almost two weeks with more than 230 migrants on board.
After admitting to being the author of this sentence, the far-right elected official assured that he was referring to the boat and not to the deputy who was speaking. The latter, on the other hand, took it for himself. Whatever the subject to which the “he” refers, many deputies were indignant at the racism behind this intervention and – a rare occurrence – the session of questions to the government was interrupted.
The petition, launched by the ex-LREM, had already been signed more than 1,400 times by the end of the morning this Friday. Guest of RMC-BFMTV, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, affirmed that he would put his own stamp on it. “I think the question of resignation arises for him,” he insisted this Friday morning.
“I remain a deputy”
“I hope that the office of the National Assembly will take the strongest decision to sanction this deputy”, continued the minister. A similar request was made by the LFI deputy, Carlos Martens Bilongo, at the microphone of RMC. But also by Jean-Luc Mélenchon. During a rally organized in front of the Assembly on Friday, the rebellious leader pleaded “for the most severe sanction against the person who is guilty of the racist remarks that we have heard”. The penalty must be proportionate to the act, and the proportion is out ! “, he judged.
VIDEO. “Let him return to Africa”: scandal in the Assembly after the words of an RN deputy
A meeting to determine the consequences for Grégoire de Fournas is scheduled for this Friday at the start of the afternoon at the National Assembly. But resignation is not on the agenda: as Le Parisien explained on Thursday evening, the biggest risk involved is a ban on taking part in the work of the Assembly for a few weeks and deprivation, for two month, half of the parliamentary allowance.
Moreover, Grégoire de Fournas made it known on Twitter this Friday: he “will not let go” and “totally assumes (his) words”.
“I remain a deputy”, he insisted on the set of BFMTV in the middle of the morning this Friday. According to him, his remarks remain “in the republican field”. “I apologize” to Carlos Martens Bilongo “if he could have misinterpreted the remark”, simply specified the elected RN.