On Monday, the deputy of La France Insoumise (LFI), Sébastien Delogu, sent a formal request to Yaël Braun-Pivet, president of the National Assembly, to recover the Palestinian flag that he had brandished during a session of questions to the government on May 28. This gesture, which took place a few days before the European elections, had resulted in the most severe sanction provided for by the rules of the Assembly: a two-week exclusion from parliamentary work and the reduction of half of his allowance for two months.
Sébastien Delogu, close to Jean-Luc Mélenchon, had waved this flag in response to a deadly bombing of a refugee camp in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip, an action that earned him the firm condemnation of the presidential majority. In his letter sent to Braun-Pivet, Delogu describes the Palestinian flag as "a symbol of a colonized and massacred people", belonging to those who "fight for human dignity".
He deplores the confiscation of the emblem, saying it is not just a personal item, but an international symbol of resistance against oppression. France, unlike several other European nations such as Spain, Ireland and Norway, has still not recognized the State of Palestine, despite repeated calls from the left.
Delogu's gesture not only electrified the Assembly, but also relaunched the debate around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, an already tense subject in the French political context, particularly within the Nupes coalition. Indeed, LFI's controversial position on this conflict, particularly after Hamas' attack on Israel in October 2023, had exacerbated tensions within the left-wing political bloc.
The President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, justified this sanction by relying on Article 9 of the General Instruction of the Bureau, which prohibits any form of visual or symbolic expression in the chamber, including flags, graphics, placards or other objects, insisting on the fact that expression in this chamber must remain exclusively oral.
Sébastien Delogu, for his part, maintains that his gesture was intended to give back to the Palestinians of Gaza "for a moment, the dignity" that their tragic fate deserves, stressing his refusal to look away from the deadly bombings that strike innocent civilians.
