French Parliament Meeting Halted After Lawmaker Shouts, "Go Back To Africa!"

[RAMROD 117,095]

 

A rightwing French lawmaker has caused uproar by shouting "Go back to Africa" during a Black lawmaker's comments at a parliamentary session broadcast to the public on Thursday.

Grégoire de Fournas, parliamentary representative from the National Rally (RN) party, interrupted Carlos Martens Bilongo, a representative from the far-left party France Unbowed (LFI) during a session of the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament.

Bilongo was calling on the French government to cooperate with EU counties -- notably Italy and its newly-elected far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni -- to assist several hundred African migrants rescued from the Mediterranean sea.

De Fournas interrupted, shouting "go back to Africa."

Chaos immediately ensued in the chamber, leading Yaël Braun-Pivet, President of the National Assembly, to temporarily suspend the session.

Bilongo and his party have described the shout as a racist personal attack, though de Fournas' party has argued that the interjection was actually intended for the migrants under discussion.

"Today, some people once again put my skin color at the center of a debate. I'm born in France and I am a French lawmaker and I didn't think that today I will be insulted [like this] at the National Assembly," Bilongo told reporters after the incident.

Mathilde Panot, leader of the far-left France Unbowed group at the National Assembly, has demanded that de Fournas face the toughest punishment for a French lawmaker — expulsion. "Racists like him have no place in our parliament," Panot tweeted.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/03/europe/french-mp-go-back-to-africa-intl/index.html

 

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[dit 46,738]

this is so sad and frustrating. 

[Dennis 8,391]

Will the french left continue to find "common ground" with the far right after this incident now? Will be interesting to see, but lately they've been cozying up to each other, especially on matters of EU/NATO and foreign policy.

 

[Oriane 22,778]

2 hours ago, RAMROD said:

Bilongo and his party have described the shout as a racist personal attack, though de Fournas' party has argued that the interjection was actually intended for the migrants under discussion.

I love how all the far-right are insisting on this as if it wasn't also bad 

[Pennywise 36,080]

Right wing people should be **** and ******* at **** *******

[bpmMonkey 7,730]

The guy in the bottom right really was shocked realizing racists are still part of our world..

[RAMROD 117,095]

1 hour ago, gypsy Hero said:

The guy in the bottom right really was shocked realizing racists are still part of our world..

It's great they are defending in unison

[Oriane 22,778]

2 hours ago, RAMROD said:

It's great they are defending in unison

They're from the left/far-left party, it's normal they're defending him

You can see the far-right side around 00:27, of course no reaction