Controversy in National Assembly after questioning of an Alsatian deputy as a German “ambassador”

Charles Sitzenstuhl, Renaissance deputy for the 5th district of Bas-Rhin was described as “Bundestag ambassador” by Thibaut François, deputy for the national rally.

Le Monde With AFP

Debates at the Palais-Bourbon on the French Presidency of the European Union became briefly overturned Thursday, July 28, after an Alsatian deputy was treated “as ambassador of the Bundestag”, the German parliament, from the benches of the national rally (RN). “I am a deputy for the National Assembly, of French nationality, not a representative of the Bundestag here”, retorted Charles Sitzenstuhl, elected Renaissance (ex-Republic on the march), then deploring an “insult to Alsace and its painful history “.

The invective, which can be heard on the recordings of the session, came from the ranks of the RN at the beginning of the intervention of the elected official of the Bas-Rhin in the gallery, and more precisely of the deputy of the 17 e district of the North, Thibaut François.

The chairman of the foreign affairs committee Jean-Louis Bourlanges (Modem) ranked alongside the deputy victim of “absurd” attacks. “In the eyes of the national rally, Alsace is not French but German,” quipped Mr. Bourlanges. “Always the same extreme right Rance, Alsaçophobe and Eur Eurote. France deserves better,” said the Renaissance deputy for Haut-Rhin Brigitte Klinkert on Twitter.

The president of session Naïma Moutchou (Horizons) also intervened to recall that there were in the hemicycle “only French elected officials, elected by the French people”.

” defamatory and inadmissible remarks “

Later in the evening, the deputy Rn Thibaut François assured that he was “obviously not alluding to the origins of the deputy”, ironic on the “very great notoriety” of Mr. Sitzenstuhl which he did not know that He “was elected and even less Alsatian”.

“I wanted by my point criticizing the political positioning of the majority and the servility of Emmanuel Macron in the Franco-German couple”, insisted Mr. François in a press release.

In his speech, Mr. Sitzenstuhl then denounced the “Crocodile tears” on Ukraine of the officials of RN Marine Le Pen and Insoumise France (LFI) Jean-Luc Mélenchon, qualified “as propagation agents From the Kremlin Doxa to France “. “Defamatory and inadmissible remarks,” reacted Mr. François. The accusation also made Arnaud Le Gall (LFI) jump, who denounced a “scandalous” remark against Mr. Mélanchon, who, according to him, “never had the slightest match with Mr. Putin”. At the very beginning of the session Mr. François also issued a “moved thought” for the Ukrainian people victim of “attack”. However, he criticized in the process the opening of the EU to a candidacy of kyiv, described as “unnecessary provocation towards Russia”.

 speech in the National Assembly, July 27, 2022. Manuel Bompard speaks in the National Assembly, July 27, 2022. Julien Muguet for “Le Monde”

MP LFI Manuel Bompard has focused on the “Famenic Bilan” of the French Presidency of the EU, believing that it had missed “a historic opportunity to act in concert to protect European peoples of the economic and social consequences of the conflict “. Mr. Bourlanges denounced the “absurd and criminal decision” of the “abject power” of Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine. The Secretary of State for Europe Laurence Boone, for her part, by opening the debates, accused Moscow of wanting, with the war in Ukraine, to establish “a curtain of blood” around Russia.

/Media reports.