HE SAID IT, HE LIED – Aly Diouara criticized the mayor for holding multiple offices and living in social housing… now here he is, a member of parliament and mayor living in social housing.

Aly Diouara seems to have changed his perspective on the perks of elected office since becoming one himself. In December 2022, the then-LFI (La France Insoumise) MP and mayor of La Courneuve publicly denounced the fact that the mayor at the time benefited from social housing in a city where thousands of residents were waiting for allocations. Four years later, Aly Diouara is now both MP and mayor… and admits to living in social housing himself. At the same time, an appeal against his municipal election legally allows him to provisionally retain his parliamentary seat and the accompanying parliamentary allowance.

HE SAID…

On December 15, 2022, Aly Diouara attacked the then-mayor of La Courneuve, Gilles Poux. He first denounced the accumulation of functions and the approximately "€8,000/month of public money" that he attributed to him.

Then he directly attacked his own housing: "A mayor who benefits from social housing in an extremely strained rental market, @PlaineCoHabitat, and in a city where 3000 applicants are waiting for social housing allocation."

And Aly Diouara concluded his message with this particularly harsh statement: "Show me the capitalist, and I'll show you the vulture."

The message was clear: when you are a mayor and benefit from significant public income, continuing to occupy social housing in a municipality where demand is very high was, in his eyes, a situation shocking enough to be denounced publicly.

HE LIED!

Four years later, Aly Diouara became what he denounced.

Elected to parliament in 2024 and then mayor of La Courneuve in March 2026, the La France Insoumise politician now acknowledges that he still rents social housing. Faced with the controversy, he fully accepts this fact: "Yes, I benefit from social housing," he wrote on August 12, stating that he benefits from it in compliance with the applicable rules and explaining that he has taken steps to move to the private rental market, without success so far.

Editor's note: There is no evidence to suggest that Aly Diouara is illegally occupying this property . The contradiction lies elsewhere. In 2022, he specifically criticized a mayor for benefiting from social housing on the grounds that the social housing stock was saturated. In 2026, having become mayor himself, he explains that his own continued occupancy of social housing is perfectly legitimate.

And that's not the only embarrassing situation.

Since his election as mayor, Aly Diouara has been temporarily holding both the positions of mayor and member of parliament due to an appeal challenging the municipal election results. Until the legal dispute is definitively resolved, the law allows him to retain both mandates. He thus continues to receive his parliamentary allowance, approximately €7,600 gross per month, while having suspended, according to his own statements, the payment of his mayoral allowance.

The appeal was filed on April 17 by Nabil Touchna, described by the satirical weekly Le Canard enchaîné as a close associate who had supported Diouara's campaign. This connection alone is obviously insufficient to conclude that the appeal was orchestrated by Diouara to retain his parliamentary seat. However, the situation is objectively advantageous for him: the legal proceedings postpone the moment when he will have to make a final choice between the National Assembly and the mayor's office.

In 2022, Aly Diouara denounced a mayor who benefited from social housing and condemned the practice of holding multiple offices. In 2026, he is both a member of parliament and mayor, still receives his parliamentary allowance, and occupies social housing himself.

All of this can be legal.

But for the one who once dispensed lessons in exemplary conduct, the archives are particularly cruel: what seemed scandalous when others benefited from it suddenly appears much more acceptable when he himself is involved.