Fifteen days of no debate at the Bourbon Palace. The maximum sanction pronounced against the Gironde member of the National Rally, Grégoire de Fournas, seems a minimum call to order. Because if racist claims are becoming common on social networks, it remains scary to hear these five words spoken in one of the sanctuaries of French democracy: “Let him go back to Africa”.
Deputy RN denies deliberately targeting Insoumis deputy Carlos Martens Bilongo in reference to his black skin. According to him, Grégoire de Fournas designated the boat that rescued the migrants rescued by the NGO SOS Méditerranée off the Libyan coast. The fact remains that this xenophobic and hateful formula is more at the level of a bar conversation than that required by parliamentary debate. A formula which, it is almost distressing to have to underline it, is totally contrary to republican principles and democratic ideals.
With its 89 elected members of the National Assembly, the RN however intends to implement a notabilization strategy. To show that it is a normal party. Able to institutionalize. Referring to France Insubordinate to practices of disorder and chaos, these elected officials of the far right have tried to appear more refined in the hemicycle. Some leaders have also distanced themselves from the Gironde deputy. If Marine Le Pen ensured the defense of Grégoire de Fournas, the one who did not give up the Élysée, however, admitted that her words “It lacked finesse”.
Coming from Jean-Marie Le Pen’s FN and curated in a strategy of normalization or “de-demonization”, the National Gathering shows that it has great difficulty in leaving behind its most shocking projections. Those that reveal the xenophobic DNA of his profound ideology. Those who testify to his obsessions on the theme of “migratory submersion” from the African continent.
Moreover, this exemplary sanction, wanted by the office of the National Assembly against Grégoire de Fournas, comes to affect the election of Jordan Bardella as head of the RN with 85% of the votes. Because it constitutes a perspective on the personality and ideology of the new far-right leader. Jordan Bardella had in fact chosen the deputy from Gironde as the future spokesperson for the party. In short, nothing surprising, given that the new leader of the lepenist party is known for his “extremely right” part and for his identity positions.
So don’t get me wrong, these words from the Gironde deputy are not exactly a racist slip but reveal an underlying trend. And it is not a spirit mocked in advance for his “good thinking” who says it, but a former vice president of the RN, excluded yesterday from the executive office of the party. “I don’t want tomorrow to go back to what the FN was twenty years ago”, fallen, annoyed, Steve Briois. That means!
