French MP Yells ‘Go Back To Africa’ To Black MP, Leaders Ask For His Termination

The French Parliament was brought to a halt when Far-right MP Gregoire de Fournas yelled ‘Go Back to Africa’ while a Black left-wing parliamentarian.

The French Parliament witnessed an unexpected situation on Thursday when a far-right MP yelled ‘Go Back to Africa’ while a Black left-wing parliamentarian was addressing the issue of immigration.

Far-right MP Gregoire de Fournas claimed he was addressing the stranded migrants on an NGO boat, not the far left MP Carlos Martens Bilongo. The left MP reportedly responded to de Fournas saying, "No way." He later termed de Fournas’ comment as ‘shameful’. “Today, I was sent back to my skin color. I was born in France. I am a French deputy," he said.

However, the comment stirred an uproar in the national assembly resulting in the suspension of the session by Parliament Speaker Yael Braun-Pivet. The centrist government and left-wing alliance condemned the comment and said it was an unacceptable racist slur. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne told reporters that Bureau of the National Assembly would convene (on Friday) to decide on necessary sanction. "There is no room for racism in our democracy,” she added.

De Fournas is a member of Marine Le Pen's National Rally (RN) which argued that he said nothing wrong. Le Pen took to twitter to lend her support to De Fournas saying, “The controversy created by our political opponents ... will not deceive the French." She claimed that De Fournas’ ‘obviously’ spoke about the migrants transported in boats by the NGOs.

With 89 lawmakers, the Le Pen's National Rally is the second-biggest party in the parliament.

Stephane Sejourne, leader of President Emmanuel Macron's centrist party, asked for de Fournas’ resignation while the left-wing Nupes alliance called for his expulsion.

The alliance said in a statement that the National Rally had shown its true face. “This racist slur is characteristic of the far-right: stigmatize according to the color of your skin, divide the French people," the statement read.

Le Pen’s RN party has been repeatedly accused of supporting racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Islam policies, particularly when it was led by her father Jean-Marie Le Pen. Although in recent years, Marie Le Pen has made huge progress in detoxifying her party's image and softening her party's hardline image over immigration.

Le Pen has lost presidential runoff elections to incumbent president Macron twice consecutively, most recently last April.

(Agency Inputs)