“Back to Africa”. And in the courtroom the quarrel begins: what happened in France

Yesterday afternoon, the French National Assembly witnessed an explosion of whistles and protests, following allegations of racist phrase Delivered by a member to a fellow. In fact, it was the exclamation of the esteemed member that caused the controversy in the courtroom Gregoire de Furnas, a member of the National Rally (Rn) lepenist party, while Carlos Martins Bilongo, parliamentarian for the far-left movement La France Insoumise (LFI) was speaking. De Fornas said the offending sentence during question time, while Bilongo, of Anglo-Congolese descent, was asking members of the government some questions about the Ocean Viking and the migrants the latter had recently rescued in the Mediterranean.

Then the esteemed Lepenist interrupted the Lfi speech, exclaiming: “Back to Africa“These words immediately stirred up Mess In the assembly, with whistles and chants of disapproval from the seats of anti-Le Pen parliamentarians. In the end, House Speaker Yael Brown Biffe was forced to suspend question time.

Bilongo and his party immediately called de Fornas’s words a racist attack, while the assembly argued instead that the phrase about Africa was in fact aimed at Ocean Viking, the subject of parliamentary debate. What the national representative said in those moments is not easy to deduce, because the pronouns are in French.he is“(the) and”that they“(ils) – How do you feel in the sentence”Qu’il retourne en Afrique‘ said de Furnas – Hey pronounce it the same waysuggesting that he may have addressed Bilongo and, in theory, the ship.

Not even the text From yesterday’s noon debate, which was posted early this morning on the National Assembly website by officials from the same party, it helps shed light on the right-wing politician’s words. The official report of the fiery question time conveys only the disputed sentence in the singular, i.e. “Go back to Africa“It is therefore almost impossible to establish whether de Fornas intended to use the singular to direct his sentence to the boat or to his teammate Bilongo.

Not even explanations From the same Vice Rn helps to understand exactly what was said during this question time. At first, shortly after the hearing was suspended, around 5 p.m. yesterday, de Fornas claimed that he meant “That the boat must return to Africa“, thus giving reasons to the proponents of the thesis that this conscience”The“He should be referring to the Ocean Viking. But shortly after 20, the politician changed his account, saying via social media that he then used the plural pronoun”The S.“And to have addressed, with such exclamation, so many benefactors: to the boat and to the emigrants on his back. And the same always the same, that he had made himself the hero of the racist comments being described as”left manipulations“Every reconstruction of what happened was meant to be attributed to him.”Disgusting comments“.

The allegedly offensive content of what de Fornas said in the courtroom prompted the highest state bodies to take a stand on the matter, even President Emmanuel Macron, who said that “shocked” give her “unbearable words“Attributed to Deputy Rn. A liberal politician can indeed be punished today by the office of the National Assembly. De Fournas is liable to”censorship basicThat is, deprivation of half of the parliamentary allowance for a period of one month or one.Censorship with temporary exclusionThat is, deprivation for a period of two months from half of the representative’s allowance, while preventing participation in the association’s activities for a period of fifteen days.