Hamas attack against Israel: the rebels unanimously oppose them in the National Assembly

"Horror. Astonishment. Anguish." It was in striking silence, Tuesday afternoon, in the Assembly, that Yaël Braun-Pivet spoke. The President of the National Assembly introduces the minute of silence in support of the victims of the terrible terrorist attack caused by Hamas this weekend in Israel. In the ranks, the emotion is certainly palpable, but as is often the case at the Palais Bourbon, tension dominates.

Once again, it was the Rebels who ignited the situation on Saturday by refusing, initially, to condemn the Hamas attacks, simply describing them as “an armed offensive by Palestinian forces”. Jean-Luc Mélenchon's troops almost immediately attracted the wrath of the entire political class, including their own allies in the Nupes. Many of their opponents were waiting for this very special session of questions to the government to settle their scores.

In the Hemicycle, it is therefore time for explanations. In the staging too. When the president of the LFI group, Mathilde Panot, speaks to call on the government to “resume the language of peace”, the LR deputies, led by their group president, Olivier Marleix, leave the Assembly. Followed, a few minutes later, by certain Renaissance parliamentarians. “You are the shame of this Assembly,” even says Macronist deputy François Cormier-Bouligeon in the direction of LFI.

Even on the benches of the Insoumis, the divisions are obvious. The fractures are expressed. Particularly when other Nupes groups express themselves. Heads lowered, the coordinator of the movement, Manuel Bompard, and the group president, Mathilde Panot, do not glance at the left-wing speakers, while some of the Insoumis deputies applaud them frankly. Cheers that annoy. A discreet but frank altercation takes place between Manuel Bompard and the Insoumise MP Danielle Simonnet when the latter stands up to give a standing ovation to the boss of the Socialists, Olivier Faure. A non-event, the MP would later say to Le Figaro.

Meanwhile, when Marine Le Pen speaks to denounce “a crime against humans, but also against peace”, sincere applause is heard on the benches of the right, and even on those of the presidential camp. The same morning, at a meeting of the presidents of the Assembly, the boss of the RN had nevertheless appeared very isolated in her desire to organize a tribute gathering of all the parliamentarians, tricolor scarves on their shoulders, in the courtyard of the Palace Bourbon. A request refused by all the group leaders and by the President of the Assembly, provoking the anger of the member for Pas-de-Calais. But in the Hemicycle, the former finalist in the presidential election is finally enjoying his one-day support. Her smile is satisfied, while Mathilde Panot remains with her eyes glued to her cell phone.

Also read Israel, minute of silence: Marine Le Pen's coup against Yaël Braun-Pivet

The Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, responded at length to the various speakers, claiming Israel's right to “defend itself in the face of terrorism”, and its desire to find a “political solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”. Before letting go, without a glance at the Insoumis: “I find it shocking and distressing to hear dissonant voices even in these benches”. The deputies from the presidential camp and the LR stand up, without fanfare. They don't want to add more. The subject is too serious, the shock wave too great.

Further behind the scenes, outside the Hemicycle, this day will also be remembered as the day when the Nupes intergroup seemed on the verge of breaking up. Just before lunchtime, while they are in a group meeting, the socialist deputies discover on X - formerly Twitter - Mathilde Panot's latest press conference. Relaunched by a journalist, the president of the LFI group has just refused to qualify Hamas as a “terrorist” organization. “It is the armed branch which is today responsible for war crimes,” she simply states. The blood of socialists only runs one round. During the very muscular meeting of the Nupes intergroup held a little earlier in the morning, they nevertheless urged the Mélenchonists to rectify their position. Without success.

"Unacceptable. Hamas is a terrorist organization. Not the regular Palestinian army. Their actions must be condemned as their political project which is not peace, the two-state solution, but the destruction of the State of Israel,” Olivier Faure, the first secretary of the PS, replied in a tweet. his meeting. In front of a few journalists, the socialist deputy Jérôme Guedj goes even further: “We must mark the occasion. Tell the rebels that if they want us to continue the Nupes, particularly until 2027, that obliges us mutually.” Adding that, according to him, in view of the latest events, “the logic of the intergroup is no longer operational”, that “everything is a little in levitation”. The PS group has also announced the suspension of its parliamentary work for a “counter-budget” from Nupes.

The communist Fabien Roussel gets carried away in his turn: “The Insoumis are putting a new penknife in the contract. We will think about how we will continue to work together… or not,” warns the national secretary of the PCF. Like the rest of the environmental group, the deputy, Julien Bayou, prefers to remind him that the emergency is above all in the Middle East, very far from the affairs of Nupes. But he sighs all the same: “Frankly, what did it cost the rebels to say that Hamas had carried out terrorist attacks?”