French MP suspended for waving Palestinian flag

Sebastien Delogu waved a Palestinian flag when answering questions to the government – ​​Copyright AFP Menahem KAHANA

The French parliament suspended a left-wing lawmaker for two weeks on Tuesday after he held up a Palestinian flag during a heated debate over whether France should recognise a Palestinian state. President Emmanuel Macron said such a move should not be based on “emotion”.

Sebastien Delogu, a member of parliament for the La France Insbouw (LFI) party from the southern city of Marseille, stood with the flag during the question time to the government.

Parliament Speaker Yael Braun-Pivet condemned what she considered unacceptable behaviour and MPs voted to suspend Delogu for two weeks and cut his parliamentary salary by half for a period of two months.

Delogu left the lower house with a V-sign for his victory, while right-wing and centrist MPs inside cheered the sanctions against him. Some MPs engaged in heated exchanges outside the chamber.

His suspension came on the day Spain, Ireland and Norway formally recognised Palestinian statehood in a coordinated decision that infuriated Israel.

This means that 145 of the 193 UN member states have now recognized a Palestinian state.

But no member of the Group of Seven industrialized nations – including France, Britain and the United States – has done so.

Macron declared in February that the recognition of a Palestinian state was no longer “taboo”.

During a visit to Germany on Tuesday, he clarified these statements, saying: “I am fully prepared to recognize a Palestinian state, but this recognition must come at an appropriate time.”

“I will not express any appreciation based on emotions,” he said.

But Prime Minister Gabriel Attal avoided a question from another LFI MP in the House of Commons on Tuesday about whether France would soon join its European allies.

The recent Gaza war has raised tensions in France, the country with the largest Jewish community after Israel and the United States and the largest Muslim community in Europe.

The war began when the militant Palestinian group Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7. According to an AFP news agency count based on official Israeli figures, more than 1,170 people were killed, most of them civilians.

The militants also took 252 hostages, 121 of whom are still in the Gaza Strip. According to the army, 37 of them are dead.

According to the Health Ministry of the Hamas-controlled area, at least 36,096 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza.