The French parliament suspended left-wing lawmaker Sébastien Delogu for waving a Palestinian flag during a debate on Palestinian statehood.
The incident occurred while a junior trade minister was responding to a question about the situation in Gaza. Delogu, a deputy from the hard-left party La France Insoumise (LFI), waved the Palestinian flag, prompting mixed reactions. Some MPs applauded and cheered Delogu, while Parliament Speaker Yael Braun-Pivet condemned his actions as ‘unacceptable.’
Lawmakers subsequently voted to suspend Delogu for two weeks and reduce his parliamentary allowance by half for two months. Security guards then removed both the flag and Delogu from parliament.
As he left the lower chamber, Delogu made a V-sign for victory, while right-wing and centrist lawmakers applauded the sanctions against him. The LFI later posted on X: ‘We will continue to carry the voices of peace everywhere, all the time.’
The latest Gaza conflict has heightened tensions in France, which has the largest Jewish community outside of Israel and the United States, as well as Europe’s largest Muslim community.