The office of the National Assembly, now dominated by the left, recorded this Wednesday the creation of a France-Palestine friendship group. A request of the same type was made in May, without success.
The decision is highly symbolic. This Wednesday, the office of the National Assembly recorded the creation of a “friendship group» France-Palestine, while the constitution of such a group normally requires the recognition of a State, according to parliamentary sources. A request of the same type was made in May, without success, because these friendship groups imply, according to criteria defined in 1981, the existence of a Parliament in the State, diplomatic relations with France, and membership of the country considered at the UN. But the left has since become the majority within the office of the Assembly, a body which brings together around the President of the Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet, the vice-presidents, quaestors and secretaries of the lower house.
The Assembly already had before the dissolution a “study group with an international vocation” France-Palestine, chaired by Richard Ramos (MoDem). The latter, like the left, wanted it to be transformed into “friendship group”as exists for most states, including Israel. “We cannot move forward together if we have asymmetry in our National Assembly” with the France-Israel group, he argued to AFP, also stressing that there is a France-Palestine friendship group in the Senate.
A contested decision
The president of the La France insoumise (LFI) group in the Assembly, Mathilde Panot, spoke on “luminous victory in the dark night which falls on the Palestinian people”urging France to “recognize the State of Palestine so that the Palestinians are no longer exiled from their own land!”. In a letter to the President of the Assembly, of which AFP was aware, the president of the Ensemble pour la République group, Gabriel Attal, expressed his opposition to this decision. “Palestine is not a member of the UN”the Palestinian Parliament elected in 2006 did not “not reunited for 11 years”before being dissolved in 2018, and “France does not recognize the State of Palestine”underlines the former prime minister.
The appointment of the president of this friendship group could take place on November 25. Richard Ramos could be a candidate but also deputies from the New Popular Front.
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