French MP defiant after Palestinian flag display draws sanctions

A hard-left French lawmaker sanctioned for raising a Palestinian flag in parliament on Tuesday says he would “rather be on the right side of history than stick to the rules of the National Assembly.”

The lower house of parliament voted to suspend Sebastien Delogu, a deputy for the hard-left La France Insoumise (LFI) party, for 15 days and to halve his pay as a lawmaker over two months, the harshest sanction possible.

“It’s the first time that a foreign flag has been raised in the assembly, but it’s appropriate given what’s at stake, when you have people, who are like us, on the other side of the Mediterranean being massacred,” Delogu tells Reuters at a pro-Palestinian protest in Paris.

Unlike other parties, LFI has not described the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel as a “terrorist” act. Some critics of LFI have accused it of antisemitism, which the party says is not true.

Delogu raised the flag during a session of questions to the government, while another LFI deputy questioned a minister about the situation in Gaza.

National Assembly rules forbid lawmakers from brandishing flags during session.

Another LFI MP, David Guiraud, called a Jewish colleague a “pig” and a “pork” during a heated exchange shortly after the flag-waving incident. That MP, Meyer Habib, has said he would file a complaint for antisemitism.