Who is Delogu, the French MP suspended because of the Palestinian flag?

On Tuesday, May 28, Sébastien Delogu, a member of the French Parliament, courageously raised the Palestinian flag in the National Assembly to protest against Paris’s unwillingness to recognize the Palestinian state.

His symbolic gesture caused a great stir inside and outside the assembly. The session was immediately adjourned and Delogu was suspended from participating in parliamentary work for 15 sessions. In addition, half of his allowance was withheld for two months.

“I believe that the French state is complicit in what is happening in Palestine today. Our group and I are proud to stand on the side of international law,” he said after his suspension.

From homeless driver to MP: this is the journey of the 36-year-old man of Armenian-Algerian descent whose actions have angered President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.

“I have experienced the misery of the world”

The Marseille MP, born in 1987, grew up in Consolat, a socially disadvantaged district in the north of Marseille. His father was a taxi driver and his mother a saleswoman.

In 2012, Delogu was evicted from his home along with his wife and two children and forced to sleep in his car. This marked the beginning of his activism against state policies.

During this time he joined the National Housing Confederation (CNL) and campaigned for the right to housing.

“I know the misery of the world and I see it all around me,” he told the French media outlet 20 Minutes at the time of his election. Just ten months before his election, he was still sleeping in his car.

He followed in his father’s footsteps as a taxi driver and became a delegate from Marseille in the Taxi de France assembly.

His commitment against VTCs (services like Uber) brought him into contact with Danielle Simonnet, then coordinator of La France Insoumise (LFI). During the election campaign of party leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon in Marseille in 2017, Simonnet introduced Delogu to Mélenchon.

Delogu was often referred to as Mélenchon’s personal driver during the campaign. “But he was never paid for it. He insisted on being a volunteer,” Lise Maillard, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s chief of staff, said in a statement to 20 Minutes.

Delogus Politics: “The Whistleblower”

Sébastien Delogu presents himself as a “local whistleblower” who is always ready to take action. In 2018, he launched a fundraising campaign to repaint his daughter’s school, criticizing its poor condition and taking on the work himself, together with other parents.

A year later, he led a smoke bomb demonstration in the Estaque neighborhood to protest against pollution caused by cruise ships.

Last March, he called for a parliamentary inquiry into “Marseille en grand,” a plan by President Macron to revitalize the city. Critics, however, argue that this plan only benefits the rich and exacerbates social inequality and the housing problem in Marseille.

Complaints and suspensions are nothing new for Delogu. He has made headlines several times since his election in June 2022.

Last December, he called the National Assembly “racists” in response to a speech by Republican Michèle Tabarot, who supported the annulment of the immigration agreement between France and Algeria.

Delogu also told Tabarot that her family was among those who colonized Algeria, to which she replied that she was proud of her family’s history and that Delogu should be ashamed of being “a friend of Hamas.” This outburst led to him being sanctioned and losing 25% of his monthly salary.

This year, Delogu was twice accused of violence following clashes during the blockade of a high school in Marseille. The school was part of the social movement against pension reform. He was accused of kicking the deputy headmaster and the school counselor. Those around him strongly denied these accusations.

Delogu’s guerrilla politics have not endeared him to France’s elite politicians, particularly Prime Minister Gabriel Attal. Attal described Delogu’s flag protest as a “sad and disheartening spectacle” and praised the MPs who had tried to confiscate the flag.

While the waving of foreign flags is prohibited in the French parliament, several MPs have worn badges with the Israeli flag in solidarity with Tel Aviv since the beginning of the Israeli war against Gaza, without fear of sanctions.

Delogu plans to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights to challenge his suspension.

“My punishment for waving the flag of a colonized and massacred people is worthy of an authoritarian regime. (…) The France of the genocide accomplices is not ours!” he added in a statement on X.