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Sebastian Derog waved a Palestinian flag while questioning the government – Copyright AFP Menachem Kahana
The French parliament on Tuesday suspended for two weeks a left-wing lawmaker who raised the Palestinian flag during a heated debate over whether France should recognize a Palestinian state, with President Emmanuel Macron saying such measures should not be based on “emotions.”
Sébastien Derogs, a member of parliament from the southern city of Marseille and a member of the France Without Fears (LFI) party, stood up and held up the national flag during a questioning session with the government.
Parliament Speaker Yael Braun-Pivet condemned the behaviour as unacceptable, and parliamentarians voted to suspend Derog for two weeks and halve his parliamentary allowance for two months.
Derogh left the House of Representatives giving the V sign in celebration, while right-wing and centrist lawmakers inside the chamber praised the sanctions against him, with some getting into heated arguments outside the chamber.
His suspension came on the day Spain, Ireland and Norway joined forces to formally recognise the state of Palestine, infuriating Israel.
The move means that 145 of the 193 UN member states have recognised the state of Palestine.
But no member of the Group of Seven (G7) nations, including France, Britain or the United States, has done so.
Macron said in February that recognition of a Palestinian state was no longer a “taboo”.
Speaking on Tuesday during a visit to Germany, he made clear those remarks, saying: “We are fully prepared to recognise the State of Palestine, but this recognition must come at a beneficial time.”
“We don’t give awards based on emotion,” he said.
But Prime Minister Gabriel Attal avoided a question from another LFI lawmaker in the lower house on Tuesday about whether France would join the European alliance anytime soon.
The recent Gaza war has caused tensions in France, the country with the largest Jewish community after Israel and the United States, and also Europe’s largest Muslim community.
The war began on October 7 when Palestinian militant group Hamas launched attacks on southern Israel that left more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, dead, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also took 252 hostages, of which 121 remain in Gaza, and the army said 37 were killed.
The health ministry in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip said Israel’s retaliatory strikes had killed at least 36,096 people, most of them civilians.
As the world’s leading news agency with 2,400 staff representing more than 100 nationalities, AFP provides fast, comprehensive and verified reporting on issues that affect our daily lives.
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“The French parliament on Tuesday suspended for two weeks a left-wing lawmaker who raised the Palestinian flag during a heated debate over whether France should recognise a Palestinian state.”
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