Moment “embarrassing”, deputy “hit”, “disgust”… The presidency of the deputy José Gonzalez, dean of the National Assembly, will have been only of short duration.
But the time of a speech and an election - that of Yaël Braun-Pivet as President of the Hemicycle - she will not have avoided controversy.
Several elected officials from the left-wing Nupes coalition castigated Tuesday the reference to French Algeria in the inaugural speech of the RN dean of the National Assembly José Gonzalez, at the opening of the new legislature.
In a brief speech, the elected official of Bouches-du-Rhône, pied-noir born in Oran, spoke of his native land from which he was "ripped".
"I left a part of my France there", at the independence of Algeria in 1962, he said, interrupting himself for a moment under the influence of his emotion.
“We left a part of France that we loved there”
The ecologist Julien Bayou said he was "shocked", even if the dean was "cautious and mentioned his personal case": "It's really problematic.
We did not applaud.
EELV MP Sandrine Rousseau considers that "the RN wants to show its credentials but it explodes from the first speech".
The president of the LFI group Mathilde Panot for her part accused the RN of “apologizing for French Algeria and the crimes of colonization”.
“We, the repatriates from Algeria (…) we left a part of France that we loved there.
It was important to say that we loved France from there and that we love France from here.
We are true patriots”, justified José Gonzalez, 79, at the microphone of LCP.
Questioned by fellow journalists on leaving the hemicycle on the crimes of France in Algeria, the deputy preferred to ignore them.
“Come with me to Algeria in the Djebel, I will find you many Algerians who will tell you:
when are you [the French] coming back?
“, he retorted.
And to add: “I am not here to judge whether the OAS has committed crimes or not.
»
José Gonzales, dean of the Assembly: "Come with me to Algeria in the Djebel, I will find you a lot of Algerians who will tell you: when are you [the French] coming back" And: "I am not there to judge whether the OAS has committed crimes or not” pic.twitter.com/XzCTO9NE2D
— Nicolas Massol (@nicolasmassol1) June 28, 2022
“After such trivialization, how far will we go?
The dean of the RN session, nostalgic for the assassins of the OAS, evokes without shame and tearful the memory of French Algeria to applause.
An insult to our history and to our parents.
Day of shame,” denounced MP Nupes Sabrina Sebaihi.
“Horror and disgust”, launched his colleague LFI Thomas Portes.
“It was quite embarrassing”, also judged the socialist Olivier Faure in front of the press.
Read alsoViolent actions of the ultra-right: from the OAS to the "lone wolves"
Jean-Marie Le Pen will congratulate the dean
In the rest of his more classic speech, José Gonzalez hailed a "symbol of French unity" with the gathering of all the deputies at the Palais-Bourbon, "a place of history" and "of hope".
The president of RN Jordan Bardella generally welcomed a “moving and unifying speech (…) What a contrast with the scruffy zadist of LFI who refuses to shake hands with his opponents”.
The former leader of the National Front, which has become the National Rally, Jean-Marie Le Pen, intends to call José Gonzalez to congratulate him and meet him, indicated his adviser Lorrain de Saint-Affrique, who welcomes a speech "of balance and 'remarkable finesse'.
The rules provide that the oldest member chairs the first session.
This is not a first for the far right.
In 1986, an ally of the National Front, Édouard Frédéric-Dupont, had opened the 8th legislature in place of Marcel Dassault, older but sick.
