LR MPs call for sanctions against their left-wing colleagues present in Saint-Soline

"The irresponsibility shown by some of our fellow deputies is all the more appalling because of the ban on this demonstration," explain the 43 signatories who include the president of LR Eric Ciotti, that of the parliamentary group Olivier Marleix and the deputy Julien Dive who posted the letter on Twitter.

Without naming them, they ask for "disciplinary sanctions against elected officials who engage in demonstrations disturbing order" because "these facts are not dignified and respectful of their function and all French people".

LFI and EELV elected officials were present at this demonstration organized Saturday in Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres) against "mega-basins", and punctuated by violence that left several injured and left two participants between life and death.

The LR signatories also deplore that farmers "also suffer these clashes" including a "violation of their private property".

They recall that "recently and for the first time, a deputy was sanctioned because of a generating event outside the Assembly", in allusion to the exclusion for 15 days of the LFI Thomas Portes for a photo where he posed, the foot on a ball with the effigy of the Minister of Labour Olivier Dussopt.

"There is therefore no reason why disciplinary sanctions should not apply in these specific cases," the MEPs added.

Ms. Braun-Pivet has already argued on Sunday that "as president of the National Assembly" she had "no power to sanction parliamentarians concerning the actions they may have outside the National Assembly and outside the hemicycle, and this is quite normal".

Regarding the case of MP Portes, the offending tweet had "a repercussion inside the Assembly: "the entire hemicycle had been scandalized by this photo" and "the deputies as a whole refused to continue deliberating until" Mr. Portes had not apologized, she recalled on RTL / LCI / Le Figaro.

For their part, the Insoumise are asking for a parliamentary commission of inquiry into the choices of policing in Sainte-Soline. But they have already used their only right of drawing, which would de facto allow such a committee to be launched, and want the Assembly to take up the subject.

© 2023 AFP